An airstrike by Nato-led forces in Afghanistan has killed a number of Taliban fighters, including a local leader, who were responsible for a weekend helicopter crash that killed 38 troops.
"The strike killed Taliban leader Mullah Mohibullah and the insurgent who fired the shot associated with the August 6th 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 (ISAF) 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.
The top US commander in Afghanistan also announced the same news. "We dealt with them in a kinetic strike," General John Allen, the commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, told reporters at the Pentagon.
Thirty US soldiers – some from the Navy’s special forces Seal Team 6, the unit that killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden – seven Afghans and an interpreter died in Friday night’s crash, just two weeks after foreign troops began a security handover to Afghan forces.
The Taliban quickly claimed responsibility for bringing down the helicopter with a rocket-propelled grenade.
The Chinook crashed in central Maidan Wardak province, just west of the capital Kabul.
It was the single deadliest incident involving US forces since the war in Afghanistan began nearly a decade ago.
Agencies
