Pakistanis angry over detentions in Times Sq. case Monday, May 24, 2010
ISLAMABAD – Relatives of three men detained by Pakistan for alleged links to the suspect in the attempted Times Square bombing say the men are innocent.
They
AFP - Thursday, August 6TAIPEI (AFP) - - Taiwan's Beijing-friendly government on Wednesday denied boycotting an Australian film festival amid a row over the e
BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a double blow on Thursday as a senior party ally in east German
Minister seeks closure of anti-Berlusconi websites Wednesday, December 16, 2009
ROME (AFP) - – The Italian government moved Tuesday to close down Internet sites encouraging further violence against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who
By ELAINE KURTENBACH,AP Business Writer AP - Wednesday, March 18SHANGHAI - Asia's stock market rally seemed to be running out of steam Wednesday, despite an
Edition:
U.S.
Africa
Arabic
Argentina
Brazil
Canada
China
France
Germany
India
Italy
Japan
Latin America
Mexico
Russia
Spain
United Kingdom
Home
Business
Business Home
Economy
Technology
Media
Small Business
Green Business
Legal
Deals
Earnings
Summits
Business Video
Markets
Markets Home
U.S. Markets
European Markets
Asian Markets
Global Market Data
Indices
M&A
Stocks
Bonds
Currencies
Commodities
Futures
Funds
peHUB
World
World Home
U.S.
Brazil
China
Euro Zone
Japan
Mexico
Russia
Afghan Journal
Africa Journal
India Insight
Global News Journal
Pakistan: Now or Never?
World Video
Politics
Politics Home
Front Row Washington
Politics Video
Technology
Technology Home
MediaFile
Science
Tech Video
Opinion
Opinion Home
Chrystia Freeland
Felix Salmon
Jack Shafer
Breakingviews
David Rohde
Bernd Debusmann
Gregg Easterbrook
Nader Mousavizadeh
James Saft
David Cay Johnston
John Wasik
Christopher Whalen
Ian Bremmer
Mohamed El-Erian
Lawrence Summers
The Great Debate
Unstructured Finance
Newsmaker
Money
Money Home
Analyst Research
Global Investing
MuniLand
Reuters Money
Alerts
Watchlist
Portfolio
Stock Screener
Fund Screener
Personal Finance Video
Life & Culture
Health
Sports
Arts
Faithworld
Business Traveler
Left Field
Entertainment
Oddly Enough
Lifestyle Video
Pictures
Pictures Home
Reuters Photographers
Full Focus
Video
Article
Comments (1)
Full Focus
Editor's choice
A selection of our best photos from the past 24 hours. Full Article
Follow Reuters
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
YouTube
Read
AOL CEO pitches investors on Yahoo deal: sources
12 Oct 2011
Alleged Iran plot "dangerous escalation": Clinton
|
12 Oct 2011
Gibson Guitar CEO slams U.S. raids as "overreach"
12 Oct 2011
Alabama immigration law decried, applauded as some flee state
12 Oct 2011
T. rex bigger than thought, and very hungry
12 Oct 2011
Discussed
171
California governor signs controversial ”Dream Act”
128
Hank Williams Jr. lashes out at media in new song
116
Insight: Occupy Wall St, the start of a new protest era?
Watched
Japanese airline, ANA, apologises for plane flip
Fri, Sep 30 2011
Rihanna's "inappropriate" outfit halts music video
Tue, Sep 27 2011
China : what is a "hard landing"?
Sun, Oct 9 2011
Probe finds no U.S. fault in Afghan chopper crash
Tweet
Share this
Email
Print
Related News
Probe finds no U.S. fault in Afghan chopper crash
Wed, Oct 12 2011
Libyan forces plan "final" attack on Gaddafi hometown
Wed, Oct 5 2011
In India, Karzai reaches out to "brother" Pakistan
Wed, Oct 5 2011
Afghan employee kills U.S. citizen at Kabul CIA base
Mon, Sep 26 2011
U.S. turns up the heat on Pakistan's spy agency
Fri, Sep 23 2011
Analysis & Opinion
Flashback to 2001: Pakistani Christians feared backlash from attack on Taliban
Pakistan and Afghanistan, spoiling for a full-blown fight ?
Related Topics
World »
Afghanistan »
U.S. President Barack Obama holds a conference call from Camp David, Maryland, in this August 6, 2011 photo release. A NATO helicopter crashed during a battle with the Taliban in Afghanistan, killing 31 U.S. soldiers and seven Afghans, the Afghan president said on Saturday, the deadliest single incident for foreign troops in 10 years of war.
Credit: Reuters/Pete Souza/The White House/Handout
By Phil Stewart
WASHINGTON |
Wed Oct 12, 2011 8:35pm EDT
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A military investigation found no U.S. personnel at fault in the August crash of a Chinook helicopter in Afghanistan that killed all 30 Americans on board, the deadliest incident for U.S. forces in the decade-old war, officials told Reuters on Wednesday.
The investigation, according to an executive summary obtained by Reuters, confirmed that the Taliban fired a rocket-propelled grenade that hit one of the rotary blades and exploded, sending the helicopter plunging to the ground and bursting into flames within seconds.
All eight Afghans on board were also killed.
Contrary to earlier speculation, the American forces -- most of whom were elite Navy SEALs -- were not lured into a trap by the insurgent fighters, the investigation found.
"The shoot down was not the result of a baited ambush but rather the result of the enemy being at a heightened state of alert due to three-and-a-half hours of ongoing coalition air operations," wrote Brigadier General Jeffrey Colt, who led the investigation.
Defense officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter in depth, said no U.S. personnel would be punished as a result of the investigation, no equipment was found to have malfunctioned and the mission itself -- to go after a high-level Taliban target -- was considered sound.
One U.S. defense official described it as a "tragic incident in the middle of a war zone."
"Even the best executed mission in a conflict can cost lives and that is what we saw," a second U.S. defense official said.
BETTER SURVEILLANCE?
That is not to say that the investigation into the August 6 incident did not make recommendations. Colt wrote that the planners did not allocate more spy aircraft to support the mission given compressed timing, but noted that "this finding was not a cause of the shoot-down or crash."
The deaths of so many Americans resonated at home in a way that other battlefield incidents have not. Relatives, pastors and friends of the fallen appeared in media, praising the troops fighting a largely unpopular war that has been overshadowed by concerns about the faltering U.S. economy.
The crash initially triggered speculation that perhaps the mission did not justify putting highly trained Navy SEALs at risk or that the slow-moving CH-47 Chinook was not the best aircraft to take them on a mission to a remote valley southwest of Kabul.
Sources familiar with special operations missions had noted that the team could have traveled in a MH-47 helicopter, which is specially equipped for such missions.
But Colt wrote that his investigation showed the "mission and the tactics and resources employed" were consistent with other special operations missions.
The elite forces were deployed after a group of Taliban appeared to be escaping from an ongoing U.S. military operation to go after a high-value target -- Qari Tahir, described as the senior Taliban leader for the Tangi Valley in Wardak province.
As the aircraft approached, "a previously undetected group of suspected Taliban fighters fired two or three RPGs in rapid succession from the tower of a two-story mud-brick building," the report said.
The first RPG missed but the second hit the helicopter, causing it to crash.
"The airframe was immediately engulfed in a large fireball" upon impact in the dry river creek below, it said.
Shortly after the incident, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, General John Allen, defended the decision to send in the SEALs. He said NATO-led forces later killed the Taliban militants responsible for shooting down the helicopter.
(Editing by Bill Trott and Christopher Wilson)
World
Afghanistan
Tweet this
Link this
Share this
Digg this
Email
Reprints
We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/
Comments (1)
Whatsgoingon wrote:
“Probe finds no U.S. fault in Afghan chopper crash” Then who’s responsible for so many lives lost?
Oct 12, 2011 12:40am EDT -- Report as abuse
See All Comments »
Add Your Comment
Social Stream (What's this?)
Edition:
U.S.
Africa
Arabic
Argentina
Brazil
Canada
China
France
Germany
India
Italy
Japan
Latin America
Mexico
Russia
Spain
United Kingdom
Back to top
Reuters.com
Business
Markets
World
Politics
Technology
Opinion
Money
Pictures
Videos
Site Index
Legal
Bankruptcy Law
California Legal
New York Legal
Securities Law
Support & Contact
Contact Us
Advertise With Us
Connect with Reuters
Twitter
Facebook
LinkedIn
RSS
Podcast
Newsletters
Mobile
About
Privacy Policy
Terms of Use
Our Flagship financial information platform incorporating Reuters Insider
An ultra-low latency infrastructure for electronic trading and data distribution
A connected approach to governance, risk and compliance
Our next generation legal research platform
Our global tax workstation
Thomsonreuters.com
About Thomson Reuters
Investor Relations
Careers
Contact Us
Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests.
NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. Nasdaq delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here.