Correction:
An earlier version fo this article incorrectly said that most of the 16 Americans killed when a helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan in June 2005 were Army Rangers. They were eight Navy SEALs and eight Army Night Stalkers, as members of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) are known. This version has been corrected.
Afghan officials from the area said Saturday that insurgent activity spiked after NATO troops withdrew from a remote outpost 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.
U.S. military deaths in Afghanistan
On Saturday, 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.
Although deadly helicopter crashes have not been common in Afghanistan, they have constituted 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.
In the most dangerous areas, the U.S. military typically flies helicopters only at night and only when there is little or no illumination from the moon. This has long been true in eastern Afghanistan, where the steep mountains along the border with Pakistan limit where the helicopters can fly and allow insurgents to lie in wait.
Prior to Saturday’s attack, the deadliest helicopter crash involving U.S. troops in Afghanistan occurred in June 2005, when insurgents shot down a Chinook in Konar province, near the Korengal Valley. Sixteen U.S. 16 troops died. The eight Navy SEALs and eight Army Night Stalkers were flying into the valley to rescue a small team of Navy SEALs who had come under fire.
The crash Saturday brings the total number of U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan this year to 274.
Overall, the summer fighting season has been less deadly this year for American troops than last year. Last month, 37 U.S. service members were killed, compared with 65 in July 2010, according to iCasualties, which tracks fatalities. In June, 47 were killed, compared with 60 in June 2010.
“No words describe the sorrow we feel in the wake of this tragic loss,” Gen. John R. Allen, the top general in Afghanistan, said in the aftermath of Saturday’s deaths. “All of those killed in this operation were true heroes who had already given so much in the defense of freedom.”
Jaffe reported from Washington. Staff writers Jason Ukman and Karen DeYoung and staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report from Washington. Special correspondents Javed Hamdard and Sayed Salahuddin contributed from Kabul.
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