NewsMax Wires
Wednesday, March 6, 2002

"One of them fell in Gardez and the other in Khost," said a statement on the pro-al-Qaeda Web site al Neda. Last month the same Web site, which claims to represent al-Qaeda and the Taliban movement -- had a statement from Osama bin Laden on the death of a Pakistani cleric. It was his first statement since the collapse of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in November last year.

"Both helicopters belonged to the U.S. Special Forces and each had 35 soldiers," said the statement.

A U.S. Central Command spokesman, Cmdr. Frank Merriman, described the al-Qaeda report as "incorrect and misleading."

Talking to United Press International from CENTCOM headquarters in Tampa, Fla., Merriman said, "Very clearly, the incidents involving the helicopters ... happened at Shahikot in Paktia province and not in Khost province."

"We have been very clear about the dead and the wounded we have had. Very clearly the al-Qaeda report is inaccurate and is attempting to sway public opinion."

"Air Force Brig. Gen. John Rosa ... very clearly went through the whole scenario of what happened at Shahikot at a news briefing today (Tuesday). We have been very studious and careful in reporting the events," Merriman said.

On Monday, the U.S. military reported seven deaths in an incident where U.S. forces sent helicopters to save a soldier left behind near an al-Qaeda and Taliban holdout outside Gardez.

Gardez is the provincial capital of southeastern Paktia province where about 2,000 U.S., Afghan and allied troops have been fighting hundreds of al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters in a mountainous region called Shahikot since Friday evening.

"The first U.S. aircraft was hit Sunday in Khost (a province neighboring Paktia) with a surface-to-air-missile and blew up there," al-Qaeda claimed.

U.S. military officials reported an attack on a U.S. military facility in Khost on Sunday night, adding that the attackers fled after U.S. aircraft dropped bombs on their positions near the Khost airport. No U.S. soldiers were wounded in the attack, officials said.

But al-Qaeda claimed that there were at least "12 soldiers in the helicopter and all of them were killed."

"The other helicopter was also hit by a surface-to-air missile while flying over Gardez city. It was targeted while landing at a field inside the walled city," the statement said. "Other aircraft flying with the helicopter flew away."

The statement said that a C-130 aircraft, protecting the helicopters, also flew away.

"The Pentagon admits that one of its aircraft has been hit by a missile but still says that some of those on board survived. An aircraft hit by a missile is blown into pieces within seconds and there never is a survivor," al-Qaeda said.

Giving details about the crash in Khost, al-Qaeda said the helicopter they claimed shooting down had come to pick up American and Canadian soldiers "resting in abandoned mud houses" outside the Khost city.

"Two helicopters were parked near the place where 70 American and Canadian soldiers were resting. The mujahedin reconnaissance discovered them and fired mortars and Sakr-35 type missiles at them. The mud houses, where the soldiers were resting, also took direct hits and many were killed."

Referring to a warning by Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that there could be more U.S. casualties in the war in Paktia, al-Qaeda said the Americans were going to admit more deaths in the future.

Copyright 2002 by United Press International.

All rights reserved.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:

Al-Qaeda

War on Terrorism

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