Passengers 33 Aircraft type Boeing CH-47 Chinook Survivor 0 Crew count 5 | Survivors 0 Date 6 August 2011 Passenger count 33 | |
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Summary Brought down by Rocket-propelled grenade attack Operator United States Armed Forces Total fatalities 38 plus one U.S. military working dog Similar 2008 Kandahar bombing, 2007 Baghlan sugar fact, 2015 Khost suicide bombing, 22 August 2015 Kabul suicide b | ||
2011 chinook shootdown in afghanistan
On 6 August 2011, a U.S. Boeing CH-47 Chinook military helicopter was shot down while transporting a quick reaction force attempting to reinforce an engaged unit of Army Rangers in Wardak province, west of Kabul, Afghanistan. The resulting crash killed all 38 people on board—25 American special operations personnel, five United States Army National Guard and Army Reserve crewmen, seven Afghan commandos, and one Afghan interpreter—as well as a U.S. military working dog. It is considered the worst loss of American lives in a single incident in the Afghanistan campaign, surpassing Operation Red Wings in 2005.
Contents
Prelude
In March 2009, U.S. forces (10th Mountain Division) established a base in Tangi Valley after it was noticed that Taliban fighters were exploiting the coalition forces' small presence in the area. U.S., French and Afghan National Police forces carried out a three-day sweep of the area after which the area was deemed secure. In April 2011, due to a decrease in troop levels U.S. forces abandoned the base (Command Outpost Tangi) and turned over control of the base to Afghan forces. However, Afghan forces never assumed control of the base which was seized by the Taliban shortly after the departure of U.S. forces.
U.S. forces continued to carry-out operations in the area (mostly via helicopter/special forces) encountering resistance from Taliban fighters on several occasions. For example, on 8 June 2011 a CH-47D was engaged from five to six locations (i.e., points of origin) which fired 14 RPG rounds at the helicopter forcing the crew to abort the mission.
Event timeline
After US intelligence services revealed a possible location of a senior Taliban leader by the name Qari Tahir in Tangi Valley, Wardak province, Afghanistan, a mission to apprehend or neutralize him was launched on the night of 5/6 August 2011 from the forward operating base in Logar Province. It was led by a platoon of 47 U.S. Army Rangers with a troop of 17 U.S. Navy SEALs kept in reserve in case of need. The Ranger platoon was transported to the area via two CH-47D transport helicopters (one of them was the accident helicopter) and supported by two AH-64 Apache helicopters and an AC-130 gunship as well as additional intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft (ISR). The mission was deemed high risk.
Initial accounts
The U.S. military helicopter carrying special operations forces to a night-raid in the Tangi Valley of Wardak Province, was most likely brought down by a rocket-propelled grenade, according to military officials.
General Abdul Qayum, the police chief of Wardak, said the military helicopter was shot down around 1 am Saturday after a U.S. night assault on a house in the village of Jaw-e-Mekh Zareen in the Tangi Valley that had lasted at least two hours. Local witnesses reported that at least two helicopters had taken part in the U.S. special forces attack on the compound, killing eight Afghan insurgents, but that just after the helicopter had taken off again it was fired upon from a separate position. Shahidullah Shahid, a spokesman for the provincial governor, said: "The US chopper that crashed last night was shot down by the Taliban as it was taking off. A rocket fired by the insurgents hit it and completely destroyed it."
A spokesman for the Taliban, Zabiullah Mujahid, confirmed that eight of the movement's fighters had been killed in the assault on the compound. He said: "They wanted to attack our Mujahideen who were in a house, but our Mujahideen resisted and destroyed a helicopter with a rocket-propelled grenade."
Later accounts
Subsequent reports stated that the U.S. military helicopter had been delivering reinforcements to personnel of the 75th Ranger Regiment, another special operations unit, when their night raid on a compound to kill or capture a senior Taliban leader went awry. During the battle US forces observed a small group of Taliban trying to flee the scene. The group probably contained the commander and a few of his bodyguards while the remaining Taliban fighters offered resistance in an effort to buy the group enough time to escape. In order to prevent this US forces called in for support.
Other reports alleged that the Taliban had laid an elaborate trap for U.S. special operations forces, luring them in with false information. A senior Afghan government official, speaking anonymously, said that Taliban commander Qari Tahir had fed U.S. forces false information about a meeting of insurgent leaders and fighters waited for the helicopter from both sides of a steep valley: "The Taliban knew which route the helicopter would take. That's the only route, so they took position on either side of the valley on mountains and as the helicopter approached, they attacked it with rockets and other modern weapons. It was brought down by multiple shots."
Deaths
The deaths included:
The 30 American deaths represent the greatest loss of U.S. military lives in a single incident in the, by then, decade-long war in Afghanistan that began in 2001.
Fifteen of the Navy SEALs that were killed were members of the Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU), while the other two Navy SEALs killed in the helicopter shootdown were from an unidentified West Coast-based SEAL unit. The five other Navy casualties were NSW (Naval Special Warfare) support personnel; in addition to these, three AFSOC operators, one Combat Controller and two Pararescuemen, all members of the 24th Special Tactics Squadron, died in the crash. Their deaths are the greatest single loss of life ever suffered by the U.S. Special Operations community in the 24-year history of the U.S. Special Operations Command.
A source from the Navy's special operations community described the reaction as, "Shock and disbelief. There's no precedent for this. It's the worst day in our history by a mile." The previous highest U.S. death toll from a single incident in the war also came from a rocket attack on a Chinook helicopter carrying Navy SEALs during Operation Red Wings on 28 June 2005. In that incident sixteen Navy SEALs and Army special operations troops were killed and three more SEALs were killed in subsequent fighting on the ground.
Subsequent events
On 10 August 2011, the U.S. military claimed that the insurgent who fired the rocket-propelled grenade had been killed only two days afterward in a F-16 airstrike, saying only that intelligence gained on the ground provided "a high degree of confidence" that the person was among those killed in the airstrike from two days earlier, but providing no other details.
During the same Pentagon news conference in which he announced that the F-16 airstrike had taken out "less than 10" of the insurgents involved, International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) commander in Afghanistan John R. Allen said the military investigation into the helicopter downing would also review whether small arms fire or other causes might have contributed to the downing.
Following the withdrawal of U.S. forces in April 2011, Tangi valley became a major staging area for attacks on Kabul (located just 60 miles away). Tangi valley remained under Taliban control until April 2013, when over 1000 Afghan security forces personnel launched an offensive in an effort to clear the area of Taliban fighters.
In October 2011, US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced that an investigation carried out following the shootdown concluded "that all operational decisions, linked to the incident, were deemed tactically sound". The article states that the helicopter crashed after a RPG round impacted the aft rotor assembly.
In 2013 Jason Chaffetz said he would hold an investigation of the United States House Oversight Subcommittee on National Security into the matter.
Controversy
Author Don Brown, a former United States Navy JAG officer stationed at the Pentagon, and former Special Assistant United States Attorney, released a book on May 1, 2015 titled, Call Sign Extortion 17: The Shoot-Down of SEAL Team Six In his book, Don Brown examines the wartime action, tells the life stories of the service members who were lost that day and questions the official military explanation of the incident contained in the infamous Colt Report, which Don Brown contends reveals either gross incompetence or a massive cover-up.
Mr. Brown indicates in his publication that the seven Afghan soldiers aboard that helicopter may have been undercover Taliban who either maneuvered the chopper within easy range of being shot down or sabotaged it from within.