NATO forces announced Wednesday that they had killed the Taliban member they believe was responsible for shooting down the Chinook helicopter carrying U.S. Navy SEALs and Afghan commandos Aug. 6.

Police in the area said that as many as 13 fighters were killed in the airstrike by an F-16 fighter jet, including the unnamed man said to have fired the fatal rocket-propelled grenade.

A statement issued by the coalition said that “while it has not been determined if enemy fire was the sole reason for the helicopter crash, it did take fire from several insurgent locations. … ” –BF

The Telegraph:

Separately General John Allen, the new chief of US-led forces in Afghanistan, said that “at approximately midnight on 8 August, coalition forces killed the Taliban insurgents responsible for this attack” in a bombing raid by an F-16 fighter jet.

Gen Allen called the downing of the chopper a “tragic incident” but said the retaliatory strike against the insurgents as proof that the United States would press ahead with the war.

Local police sources said the dead also included fighters called Maulavi Shafiullah and Ghulam Hazrat.

A Taliban spokesman had earlier emailed The Daily Telegraph a statement purporting to come from the shooter, named as Ayubi, in which he described shooting the aircraft “in the chest” and watching it catch fire.

The authenticity of the statement was impossible to verify, but a police source said a man called Ayubi had been killed in the airstrike.

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