WASHINGTON — The Pentagon on Wednesday revised downward the death toll of Navy SEALs in the weekend helicopter crash in Afghanistan, FOX News Channel reported.
A Pentagon spokesman said 17 of the 30 Americans who were killed were SEALs, down from the 22 originally reported dead.
SWIFT JUSTICE: TALIBAN WHO SHOT DOWN HELICOPTER KILLED
US officials had originally said 22 Navy SEALs, three Air Force Special Operations ground controllers, five Army helicopter crew members, seven Afghan commandos and a translator were killed Saturday when their CH-47 Chinook helicopter was shot down, apparently by a Taliban-fired rocket-propelled grenade.
But the Pentagon spokesman said Wednesday that fewer SEALs were among the dead. The spokesman said some of those killed who were originally thought to have been SEALs were actually part of an elite Air Force unit that often operates in conjunction with the SEAL team.
The news comes after the Pentagon announced earlier Wednesday that it would release the names of the Americans killed in the crash.
Pentagon spokesman Col. Dave Lapan said the delay in the names’ release came as a result of a request from military commanders from the Special Operations community to review the policy of releasing names “because of possible [security] implications for the families” of those killed, FOX reported.
The remains of the soldiers returned to the US Tuesday, greeted by President Barack Obama, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and other US officials in a ceremony at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.
Lapan said that after Panetta attended the ceremony, he “decided to follow the law” and Defense Department policy and release the names, according to FOX.
A law passed by Congress in 2004 calls for the public release of names of all those killed in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, US Gen. John Allen, the commander of US and international forces in Afghanistan, said Wednesday that the Taliban insurgents who shot down the helicopter were killed in a subsequent mission.
“At approximately midnight on 8th August, coalition forces killed the Taliban insurgents responsible for this attack,” Allen said in a Pentagon briefing from Kabul.
He said the insurgents were killed in an F-16 air strike.
Allen also said the US helicopter had been part of a mission targeting a Taliban leader. Earlier reports had indicated the helicopter was called in to assist troops who came under fire as they sought out the target.
In a statement released during Allen’s briefing, NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said Taliban leader Mullah Mohibullah and the insurgent who fired the shot associated with the crash were both killed by the US strike in Wardak province in the eastern part of the country. Several other Taliban associates were also killed.
Allen said US forces did not kill the Taliban leader who was the target of the original mission.
“We will continue to exploit that target. We will remain in pursuit,” Allen said.