Posted on 10/19/2001 11:55:56 PM PDT by kattracks
ISLAMABAD, Oct 20 (Reuters) - Fighters of the ruling Taliban shot down a U.S. helicopter in an lightning raid in southern Afghanistan, a diplomat at the Taliban embassy in Pakistan said on Saturday, echoing remarks earlier by a minister in Kabul.
"Our troops shot down a U.S. helicopter with anti-aircraft gunfire from Kandahar," Sohail Shaheen, number two at the embassy in Islamabad, told Reuters.
"The casualties may be more than two," he said.
Asked about U.S. reports that a helicopter crashed in Pakistan during operations linked to the overnight U.S. raid, Education Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said in Kabul: "We don't rule out the possibility of shooting it down."
These people are accomplished liars.
Taliban: "We shot it down!"
It's very possible.
These slimeballs said they did it. I don't care if they did or not.
They said they did!
NUKES AWAY!
Burn in hell A$$holes!
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two U.S. troops died on Friday in a helicopter crash in Pakistan during operations connected with the U.S. military campaign in neighboring Afghanistan, the Pentagon said.
``Two U.S. military personnel were killed today in Pakistan as a result of a helicopter crash accident while supporting Operation Enduring Freedom,'' the Pentagon said in a statement, referring to the name given to the war declared on terrorism by President Bush after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States which killed nearly 5,400 people.
The Pentagon said it would withhold the names of the dead pending notification of the next of kin.
The statement gave no other details.
But a U.S. official said the crash was not part of the elite American special operations force that made a raid into Afghanistan on Friday, the first ground operation of the campaign.
Right John. you can bet that if it is our chopper down we would admit it. We say nothing until we are certain that all of our people and crafts are accounted for.
Nothing could be worse for us than to say they had not shot down a chopper and then find out they had. Even if we know they have not shot one down and we still have a chopper out there we will keep quiet. For they might shoot one down.
We will be totally truthful. Gradually their lies will become apparent to all. Then even if they do have success no one will believe them. The worst possible course of action for us is to say something that could be construed as not true. Saying nothing has been shot down now only to have one shot down 10 minutes from now is a bad thing. We will not do it.
Faking victory is very stupid. The taliban are stupid. We never fake victory. Even hitlers final attack, the battle of the bulge, was honestly reported by us to the german people. Hitler lied to his people. We did not. We did not cover up defeat. By the summer of 1944 the German peole did not believe Hitler.. They believed us.
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