U.S. helicopter shot down in Afghanistan

[sabra]

Source: CNN

KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A U.S. helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan on Monday, but none of the 10 soldiers on board were killed, according to a U.S. military spokesman.

The Taliban claimed that its fighters used a rocket-propelled grenade launcher to shoot down a U.S. Chinook helicopter in the Wardak province, about 30 miles (50km) west of Kabul.

Maj. John Redfield, a U.S. military spokesman, told CNN a coalition helicopter went down in the Wardak province after an exchange of fire with enemy on the ground.

All 10 soldiers on board were picked up and taken to safety, he said. He could not say if any were injured.

Meanwhile, a suicide bomber on Monday killed two soldiers and wounded three others in northern Afghanistan, a spokesman for the U.S. military in Afghanistan said.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/10/27/afghanistan.crash.death.ap/index.html

[cliss]

1. I'm having trouble

believing this.

A helicopter is shot down, and no one is killed?

The Pentagon has a tendency to underreport casualties and injuries, in particular with helicopters going down. For some reason, it's a sensitive issue.

Let's watch in the next couple of days, if there is a "sudden" reporting of US troop deaths.

[Lex1775]

2. It happens.

Saying something was "shot down" doesn't automatically mean it went down in flames and blew up. Especially when you're talking about helicopters. They are considered "low and slow". Unless a pilot is killed or a rotor sheared they can usually manage to land, relatively safely. They were also engaged to begin with, so a debilitating hit wouldn't have caught them by surprise.