"We are aware of an incident involving a helicopter in eastern Afghanistan," said U.S. Air Force Capt. Justin Brockhoff, a NATO spokesman. "We are in the process of accessing the facts." The helicopter was a twin-rotor Chinook, which are used for transport, said an official at NATO headquarters in Brussels, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press.
The helicopter crashed in the Sayd Abad district of Wardak province, said a provincial government spokesman, Shahidullah Shahid. The volatile region borders the province of Kabul where the Afghan capital is located and is known for its strong Taliban presence.
Days like this hurt. I only take comfort in the fact that days like this are rare.
And knowing that our enemies are mostly incapable of inflicting single-incident casualties like this and that only our failures (mechanical or human) doesn't help much at first, either.
The Taliban are claiming they shot it down. Perhaps. But they would claim they did it. Six years ago they did score big by knocking down one of our choppers, killing 16 American troops (special forces, I believe).
UPDATE: The Taliban did shoot it down.
How did they do it? Who supplied the weapons to do it? Did we make any mistakes that made it easier for them to do it? And who do we need to kill to stop it from happening again?
