ISLAMABAD: Taliban used stinger missile to shoot down the Chinook 47
that killed US Navy Seals among 31 troops in Afghanistan, an Afghan
Parliamentarian has claimed.
Member of Afghan Parliament’s
Lower House, Wolesi Jirga, Huma Sultani, who had claimed that Taliban
Supreme Commander Mulla Omer was in Afghanistan and ready for peace
talks, told Online via telephone that Taliban also possess
anti-aircraft gun. She also claimed that the ill-fated chopper was on a
mission hunting the Supreme Commander.
Sultani, who was said to
be in close contacts with Taliban top leadership for peace talks, said
the US Navy seals, who had killed Osama bin Laden this year, were
looking for Mulla Omer around 150 km of Kabul. The parliamentarian
said, “When she got the report she announced inside the Afghan
Parliament that Mulla Omer was in my home.” She said that it could
affect peace with Taliban, whose top commander is being targeted when
they are ready for talks for peace in Afghanistan.
She
questioned destruction of Chinook by an RPG 7 or ordinary gun as it was
a bullet proof helicopter. “US wants to conceal that Taliban have
weapons like stinger missiles and anti-aircraft gun and their defence
is stronger than the world knows,” she said. When contacted for
official version US Army’s Lt Col Jimmie E. Cummings JR, a spokesman of
ISAF in Afghanistan, said that the initial reports from the ground
force reported an RPG being shot at the helicopter. “Though the
incident is still under investigation, we have not received any
information or evidence regarding any kind of new weapon,” .
Responding
to a question, he claimed that ISAF had flown more than 50,000 rotary
wing missions during the past year and only 3 helicopters have been
lost to enemy fire. There have been 10,000 rotary wing missions
supporting special forces and the helicopter lost on 6 Aug was the
first in 12 months, he added.
“We have not seen any evidence of
any kind of new air defence weapon were being deployed on the
battlefield,” the spokesman told Online by an email message. The NATO
forces are also denying that it was hunting Mulla Omer in the Superb of
Kabul when the Chinook was crushed.
The lieutenant colonel said
that the Afghan and coalition security force conducted several
operations in the area to dismantle the Taliban network in Sayyidabad
district run by Din Mohammad. On 5 August, the security force was
moving to contain the compound where Mohammad’s replacement, and former
second-in-command was assessed to be, he said. It is pertinent to
mention that on August 6, a military helicopter was shot down in
eastern Afghanistan, killing 31 U.S. special operation troops, most of
them from the elite Navy SEALs unit that killed al-Qaida leader Osama
bin Laden, along with seven Afghan commandos. The incident is
considered as the greatest set back to US in the war on terror in
Afghanistan. Online
