Thirty-one US special forces and seven Afghan soldiers died when the Taliban shot down their helicopter,officials said today,in the deadliest single incident for foreign troops since the war began in 2001. The Chinook helicopter was downed late Friday during an anti-Taliban operation in an insurgent-infested district of the eastern province of Wardak,just southwest of the Afghan capital Kabul. It was shot down by a Taliban rocket which completely destroyed it,the Wardak governor's spokesman said after the Taliban had claimed responsibility for the attack. The death toll was given in a statement issued by Afghan President Hamid Karzai's office and was not immediately confirmed by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). "The president of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai expressed condolences over a NATO helicopter crash and the deaths of 31 members of US special forces," the statement said. "The president of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan expresses his sympathy and deep condolences to US President Barack Obama and the family of the victims." The statement added that seven Afghans were also killed in the crash,who the country's defence ministry confirmed were also members of the special forces. The strike was by far the worst to hit foreign troops in the near decade-long war. The previous worst saw 16 American soldiers killed in 2005 when a Taliban rocket hit their Chinook in the eastern province of Kunar.
