President Barack Obama has pledged that the United States will press on with its mission in Afghanistan following the deaths of 30 U.S. troops, most of them elite Navy SEALs, in a helicopter crash apparently caused by a Taliban rocket-propelled grenade.
In remarks delivered at the White House on August 8, Obama said he was confident U.S. troops "will continue the hard work of transitioning to a stronger Afghan government and ensuring that Afghanistan is not a safe haven for terrorists."
Obama said he had spoken to generals deployed in Afghanistan and Afghan President Hamid Karzai and vowed that the mission will "succeed."
In addition to the 30 Americans who died, the August 6 crash of the CH-47 Chinook helicopter also claimed the lives of seven Afghan commandos and an Afghan interpreter.
Many of the U.S. dead were from SEAL Team Six, the unit that carried out the raid in May in Pakistan to kill Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.
The disaster in the Tangi Valley of Wardak Province marked the deadliest single incident for U.S. forces in Afghanistan since U.S. troops deployed in the country nearly a decade ago.
compiled from agency reports
In remarks delivered at the White House on August 8, Obama said he was confident U.S. troops "will continue the hard work of transitioning to a stronger Afghan government and ensuring that Afghanistan is not a safe haven for terrorists."
Obama said he had spoken to generals deployed in Afghanistan and Afghan President Hamid Karzai and vowed that the mission will "succeed."
In addition to the 30 Americans who died, the August 6 crash of the CH-47 Chinook helicopter also claimed the lives of seven Afghan commandos and an Afghan interpreter.
Many of the U.S. dead were from SEAL Team Six, the unit that carried out the raid in May in Pakistan to kill Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.
The disaster in the Tangi Valley of Wardak Province marked the deadliest single incident for U.S. forces in Afghanistan since U.S. troops deployed in the country nearly a decade ago.
compiled from agency reports