Asia

Home page

Asia

Airstrike kills insurgents who downed helicopter

11 August 2011 01:54 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. An airstrike by international forces has killed the Taliban insurgents responsible for the downing of a U.S. helicopter this weekend in which 38 U.S. and Afghan troops died, including the militant who launched the fatal rocket-propelled grenade, the military claimed Wednesday, APA reports quoting news.yahoo.com webpage.

The claim of success comes amid fears that as U.S. troops begin to leave Afghanistan, the country is far from stable and remains deadly for those forces who remain. As U.S. troops thin out, special operations forces like those that died in Saturday’s helicopter crash are likely to make up a greater part of the American force in Afghanistan.

F-16 fighter jets killed the insurgents responsible on Monday, according to the top American commander in Afghanistan, Marine Corps Gen. John Allen.

The military provided few details to back up the claim, but Allen said he was confident the airstrike killed fewer than 10 insurgents involved in the attack on the U.S. Chinook helicopter.