 All 16 U.S. troops on a special forces helicopter were killed when the chopper was shot down by insurgents, the U.S. military said Thursday after rescuers recovered the bodies from the wreckage in a mountainous ravine. The MH-47 Chinook helicopter went down Tuesday in eastern Afghanistan while ferrying troops to a battle against militants — the deadliest single blow to American forces who ousted the Taliban in 2001 for harboring al-Qaida and are now grappling with an escalating insurgency. "At this point, we have recovered all 16 bodies of those servicemen who were onboard the MH-47 helicopter that crashed on Tuesday," Lt. Gen. James Conway, director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at the Pentagon. The dead on the helicopter included eight Navy SEALs and eight Army air crew, a U.S. official said in Washington. Authorities initially reported 17 people were on board, but the manifest included a person who apparently missed the flight, military officials said. |