Nato kills insurgents who downed US Chinook

General John Allen, the new commander of US forces in Afghanistan, said at the Pentagon that "at approximately midnight on 8th August, coalition forces killed the Taliban insurgents responsible for this attack."

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 strike killed Taliban leader Mullah Mohibullah and the insurgent who fired the shot associated with the Aug. 6 downing of the CH-47 helicopter, which resulted in the deaths of 38 Afghan and coalition service members," the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said in a statement.

The statement did not say explicitly that the Taliban fighters had shot the helicopter down, although it was the clearest indication yet that was the likely cause.

Military officials believe that the shooting down of the helictoper, killing 37 people, was most likely a "lucky shot" rather than marking a new insurgent ability to destroy aircraft.

The crash killed 22 United States Navy SEALs from the same elite unit which killed Osama bin Laden, as well as aircrew, seven Afghan commandos and an interpreter.
The deaths marked Nato's heaviest loss of life in a single incident in the decade-long Afghan campaign.
The previous single biggest Nato death toll in the country saw 16 American soldiers killed in 2005 when a Taliban rocket hit their Chinook in the eastern province of Kunar.

taken from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/8693425/Nato-kills-insurgents-who-downed-US-Chinook-helicopter.html