Taliban Behind Afghanistan U.S. Helicopter Crash Killed by NATO
Taliban leader Mullah Mohibullah, and one of the insurgents responsible for the August 6 helicopter attack that took 37 lives, including 22 Navy Seals, was among several Taliban members killed by NATO forces on Monday.
U.S. General John Allen said in a statement at the pentagon on Wednesday, "At approximately midnight on 8th August, coalition forces killed the Taliban insurgents responsible for this attack."
The coalition forces killed the men by kinetic airstrike.
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A statement released by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said, “The strike killed Taliban leader Mullah Mohibullah and the insurgent who fired the shot associated with the August 6 downing of the CH-47 helicopter.”
The statement continued, “Mullah Mohibullah was a key facilitator in an insurgent attack cell led by Din Mohammad, a Taliban leader killed in a previous Special Operations mission. As a leader in Mohammad’s network in Tangi valley, Mohibullah had as many as 12 Taliban fighters under his command, including potential suicide bombers.”
The helicopter went down in the Tangi valley of Afghanistan’s Wardak province. Wardak borders Afghanistan’s capital of Kabul to the west.
The provinces surrounding Kabul have seen increased levels of insurgency activity in recent years.
The helicopter crash marked the biggest loss of U.S. forces since the war in Afghanistan began in 2001.
The crash also took the lives of elite Navy Seal’s, some of which were part of Navy Seal Team Six, the unit that was responsible for taking Osama bin Laden down in this past May in a Pakistani suburb.
With the helicopter crash, the elite Navy Seal Team Six is now marked with a 10 percent loss of individuals and will now be working to fill the void of its missing members with the newly appointed U.S. Special Operations commander, William McRaven.
McRaven is a four-star admiral and assumed his new post on the Monday following the fatal crash.
