The downed helicopter story

Just as speculated (although I suggested it might be years - if ever - before we got the real story ):

Chopper Down Over Kunar: A Special Ops unit calls for help, and a rescue goes awry.

The two special forces chi-nook helicopters had come in, unfortunately, at sunset. They were racing to rescue their comrades on the ground.

[...]

The fate of the recon team they'd been sent to recover was still uncertain late last week. But chillingly, the newly emboldened Taliban announced they had also ambushed and executed seven American "spies," and had taken one American prisoner. The report could not be confirmed. U.S. officials said an unmanned Predator scout plane—also part of the mission dubbed Operation Red Wing—had been lost as well.

Whatever the final death toll, the Chinook downing marked the single worst setback to American forces in Afghanistan since 2001. It was also a wrenching wake-up call. For a year now, as the insurgency in Iraq has raged, the Bush administration has been relatively pleased with its success in stabilizing Afghanistan. But last week's bloody encounter at Asadabad suggests that the situation is still very dicey, and perhaps getting worse.

[...]

The failed U.S. mission at Asadabad does bear haunting reminders of the humiliation of the Soviet Army in the same mountains during the 1980s. Milt Bearden, a former CIA officer in the region, says that CIA-supplied mujahedin—the forerunners of the Taliban—destroyed an entire Soviet Special Forces battalion at Asadabad in 1988.

And now, the CIA-supplied mujahedin have destroyed American Special Forces.

Or else we did. We bombed the area, after we lost the chopper.

But, just be patient. Stay the course. September 11.

Update 7/3/05 4:20pm :

One member of a U.S. special operations reconnaissance team missing in Afghanistan since Tuesday has been rescued, a U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity told CNN.

The team member "evaded the enemy and was successfully rescued by U.S. forces," the official said.

No other details are being released because the search for other missing members of the team continues, the official said.
  CNN article