Seven U.S. servicemen were killed Monday when two MH-47 Chinook helicopters were struck by enemy fire in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan, as U.S.-led forces battled al Qaeda fighters in the fiercest ground combat of the 5-month-old war.
The seven soldiers died on a rugged, frigid battlefield south of the city of Gardez after the twin-rotor helicopters, attempting to bring troops to the battlefield, were hit by rocket-propelled grenades and machine-gun fire. One soldier died when he fell off the first helicopter, and six others were killed after the second Chinook landed in an attempt to rescue him, U.S. defense officials said.
The casualties'coupled with the death of a U.S. Special Forces soldier on Saturday as the offensive began'increased by fourfold the number of American combat deaths in the war. Forty American soldiers have been wounded in the U.S.-led assault, though none seriously, and an unspecified number of allied Afghan troops have been killed and wounded.
The helicopters were downed amid intense combat across a 70-square-mile area high in the Shahikot mountain range between Gardez, the capital of Paktia province, and the city of Khost on the Pakistan border. Senior Pentagon officials said between 800 and 900 American troops, leading a 2,000-man allied force that included Afghans and troops from at least six other Western countries, were attacking al Qaeda fighters in pockets across the region.
\The war is going on nonstop between the Afghan American forces and al Qaeda,"" said Taj Mohammed Wardak, the governor of Paktia province. ""As soon as the security belt [around al Qaeda] gets tightened, the resistance gets heavier.""
Near the tiny village of Shahikot, U.S. warplanes pounded suspected al Qaeda positions with relentless airstrikes, while ground forces on the two sides traded mortar fire and small-arms fire throughout the day. One barrage of mortar fire appeared to target the U.S. base south of Gardez, although it missed.
""The fighting, as you all know, has been fierce,' Army Gen. Tommy R. Franks, chief of the U.S. Central Command, told reporters at his base of operations in Tampa. ""Enemy forces in this area are dug in. They're in caves. They're also in natural fighting positions. They're using small arms: machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades, mortars.""
The U.S. forces, he added, ""are right in there, mixing it up with them,"" underscoring the shift in American tactics from earlier in the war when U.S. commanders allowed Afghan forces to take the lead in the ground fighting.
""When we began this operation, we knew that the al Qaeda and their supporters there would have two choices: to run or stay and fight,"" Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at the Pentagon. ""It seems they have chosen to stay and to fight to the last, and we hope to accommodate them.\
