By Kevin Sieff and Sayed Salahuddin
KABUL — A NATO helicopter was shot down during an overnight operation against the Taliban in eastern Afghanistan, a U.S. official said. The crash killed 31 U.S. service members and eight Afghan troops, according to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, making it the deadliest incident for the coalition in the nearly 10-year-old war.
The U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter, said the aircraft was most likely brought down by a rocket-propelled grenade and that many of the dead were Navy SEALs. The Taliban asserted responsibility for the crash, which occurred in Wardak province, just west of the capital, Kabul.
American and Afghan officials said that the Chinook aircraft had been operating in an area of heavy insurgent activity.
Saturday’s crash comes during a surge of violence across large swaths of Afghanistan, particularly in the east, which has become a flash point in the conflict as American troops prepare for a phased withdrawal from the country. The incident threatened to shake confidence in NATO’s air power — a key asset in the war and a important element of combat support offered to Afghans, who lack an air force of their own.
Residents of Sayedabad district in Wardak who were awake for an early morning Ramadan prayer reported hearing a rocket-propelled grenade being fired and then a loud explosion. Flames lit the night sky, they said.
“Then American forces began searching houses and blocked the roads of the village,” said Sana Gal, 35, a resident of Tangi, a village a few hundred yards from the crash site.
A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, said an insurgent shot down the helicopter with a rocket-propelled grenade after the conclusion of a firefight in which eight Taliban fighters were killed.
Deadly helicopter crashes have not been especially common in Afghanistan, but despite their infrequency, they constitute some of the bloodiest incidents in the war’s history. Before Saturday’s crash, 96 coalition troops had been killed in eight separate crashes since 2005 — products of both mechanical problems and insurgent attacks.
Chinook helicopters are vulnerable to attack from rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns when taking off and landing, particularly in mountainous terrain, because they are big targets that fly low to the ground. In the most dangerous areas, the U.S. military will typically fly Chinooks only at night and only when there is little or no illumination from the moon. This has long been true in restive and mountainous areas throughout eastern Afghanistan and has at times made it challenging to resupply units.
The Chinooks have not been the only U.S. helicopters involved in fatal crashes in Afghanistan. In one of the deadliest incidents in recent years, a Black Hawk helicopter crashed in Zabul province last September, killing nine American service members.
The deadliest helicopter crash involving U.S. Special Forces in Afghanistan occurred in June 2005, when insurgents shot down a Chinook in Konar province, near the Korengal Valley. Sixteen U.S. 16 troops, most of them Army Rangers, died. The Rangers were flying into the valley to rescue a small team of Navy SEALs that had come under fire.
That incident led U.S. forces to set up outposts in the Korengal, a remote valley that was a hotbed of insurgent activity. From 2006 to 2010 the valley was one of the most violent spots in Afghanistan for U.S. troops; more than 50 Americans were killed there. In the spring of 2010, Americans pulled out of the valley.
The remote Tangi Valley, which sits near the border between Wardak and Logar provinces, has long been a problem area for U.S. troops and the Afghan government. U.S. forces had for years kept a small presence in those provinces, but in 2009 surged troops into the area.
The insurgency in Wardak and Logar is generally thought to be affiliated with the Haqqani network.
U.S. forces had wanted to make Paktika and Khost provinces their main focus in the east this fighting season. But the increased violence in Wardak and Logar, and their proximity to Kabul, forced the Americans to change plans. Since then, Wardak and Logar have been the main focus of U.S. forces in the east.
Local Afghan officials were quick to point out Saturday that insurgent activity in the volatile Tangi Valley, where the latest helicopter crash occurred, has spiked in recent months, since some NATO troops withdrew from a remote base in the area.
“The Americans left because they were getting casualties with each operation . . . and since then, the insurgents have increased their activity,” said Shahidullah Shahid, a spokesman for the Wardak governor.
All foreign combat forces are due to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014, and some withdrawals have already begun, coinciding with the launch of a security transition in seven largely peaceful cities and provinces. But while Afghan forces have assumed formal control of those areas, some of the country’s more volatile regions have shown little sign of progress, leaving many Afghans and Americans wary of the prospects for the war’s endgame.
The crash Saturday brings the total number of foreign troops killed in Afghanistan in 2011 to 374, according to the icasualties.org Web site. Two-thirds of them have been American, including 28 Special Forces soldiers.
In a statement, President Obama expressed his condolences to the families and loved ones of those who were killed, saying their deaths were a “reminder of the extraordinary sacrifices made by the men and women of our military and their families, including all who have served in Afghanistan.”
“We will draw inspiration from their lives, and continue the work of securing our country and standing up for the values that they embodied,” he said. “We also mourn the Afghans who died alongside our troops in pursuit of a more peaceful and hopeful future for their country.”
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta also issued a statement, saying he was “deeply saddened by the loss of many outstanding Americans in uniform and of their Afghan counterparts.” Their courage, he said, was exemplary.
Karzai’s office said in a statement, “The president of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan has expressed his condolences to the U.S. President Barack Obama and to the families of the victims.”
Salahuddin is a special correspondent. Staff writers Greg Jaffe and Jason Ukman and staff researcher Julie Tate in Washington and special correspondent Javed Hamdard in Kabul contributed to this report.
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