US News

Taliban who shot down US helicopter have been killed, US general says

KABUL — The Taliban insurgents who shot down a US helicopter in Afghanistan over the weekend, leaving 30 Americans dead, have been killed, US Gen. John Allen, the commander of US and international forces in Afghanistan, said Wednesday.

“At approximately midnight on 8th August, coalition forces killed the Taliban insurgents responsible for this attack,” Allen said in a Pentagon briefing from Kabul.

PENTAGON REVISES SEAL DEATH TOLL

He said the insurgents were killed in an F-16 air strike.

Twenty-two 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. US officials have said a rocket-propelled grenade was the likely cause of the crash.

The helicopter had been on its way to assist a security force that exchanged fire with insurgents as it searched for a Taliban leader.

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.

Marine Corps Gen. John Allen told a Pentagon news conference Wednesday that forces learned where the insurgents had fled to and killed them in an early Monday morning air strike.

A separate statement to the media from Afghanistan said the strike killed Taliban leader Mullah Mohibullah and the insurgent who fired the rocket-propelled grenade that downed the Chinook helicopter.

The Pentagon announced Wednesday that it will release the names of the 30 Americans who were killed when their helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan over the weekend, FOX News Channel reported.///

The news comes after Pentagon spokesman Col. Dave Lapan said Tuesday that there were no immediate plans to release the names of those killed. Normally, the Pentagon releases the names of those killed in action 24 hours after next of kin are notified.

But Lapan said Wednesday that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta had never intended to keep the names secret. He said the delay in their 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.

Twenty-two 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. US officials have said a rocket-propelled grenade was the likely cause of the crash.

The remains of the soldiers returned to the US Tuesday, greeted by President Barack Obama, 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.