Mission commanders, believing that Tahir was likely among one of the groups, deployed an Immediate Reaction Force (IRF) to interdict them while the Rangers held the compound. forces observing the mud walls and terraces of the village saw new groups of fighters gathering and maneuvering. Through sensors on manned and unmanned aircraft, U.S. Three hours after disembarking from the Chinooks, the assault force had secured the compound and detained a number of Tahir’s men, but they hadn’t found Tahir himself.

The remaining two fighters ducked into a stand of trees and disappeared from the Apaches’ infrared scanners. One AH-64 crew, after identifying the men as enemy combatants, fired on them with their gunship’s 30mm cannon, killing six. When the two Chinooks had first touched down in the village, a group of eight fighters armed with AK-47 rifles and RPG-7 rocket-propelled grenade launchers bolted from the compound. As the ground assault force rushed toward Tahir’s compound, Extortion 17 and 16 sped back to base, where they were refueled, and awaited word to extract the team, evacuate wounded, or race reinforcing troops to Juy Zarin. Intelligence had revealed Tahir to be the senior Taliban chief of the Tangi Valley region, with probable ties to upper-echelon Taliban leadership in Pakistan. Their target: an Afghan named Qari Tahir and his group of fighters. Army AH-64 Apache attack helicopters, an Air Force AC-130 gunship, and a small fleet of unmanned surveillance aircraft orbited overhead, a platoon of the 75th Ranger Regiment and members of an Afghan special operations unit stormed down the rear ramps of the Chinooks and into the night. The mission had begun about four hours prior to the shootdown, when the two helicopters touched down side by side in Juy Zarin, a village in the bare rock-walled Tangi Valley of Wardak Province. military investigations followed every moment of the mission to determine what went wrong on Extortion 17’s final flight.

No evidence has emerged to support any of these claims. In light of that raid’s success, the shootdown of Extortion 17 incited a flurry of conspiracy theories: The Taliban were tipped off it was a trap it was retribution for the killing. Just three months earlier, members of a counterpart SEAL Team 6 squadron successfully raided a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and killed Osama bin Laden. Those killed ranked among the world’s most highly trained and experienced commandos, including 15 men from Gold Squadron of the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, popularly called SEAL Team 6. A Taliban fighter shot the helicopter out of the sky with a rocket-propelled grenade and all aboard were killed-the single greatest loss of American life in the Afghan war. Operating with no lights save for the faint green glow of night vision goggles and cockpit instrument panels, the two helicopters, call signs Extortion 17 (“one-seven”) and Extortion 16, lifted into the darkness and accelerated toward a destination less than 20 miles west.Įxtortion 17 and its 38 occupants would not return. Why did it take 17 minutes to fly a 10-minute mission? Why was the black box missing from the crash site? Why was the Fire Control Officer of the AC-130 Gunship flying above denied permission to engage the enemy preparing to mount an attack against the helicopter? Ten years later, these same questions are still being asked, but now as military personnel come forward, so do long awaited answers.A few minutes past 2 a.m. on August 6, 2011, at a dusty forward operating base 40 miles south of Kabul, Afghanistan, the rotors of two U.S. Immediately following the military’s investigative report of the shootdown, questions were raised. This was the greatest single-incident loss of life in the history of the Navy SEALs, U. Thirty Americans and one American military working dog were shot out of the sky – no survivors. The team readied themselves as the pilot gave the signal to prepare the troops to exit the bird, “One minute… one minute.”īut Extortion 17 and the personnel aboard would never reach their destination. Flying just above the treetops, the helicopter rapidly entered the Tangi valley, headed for a small village. Army Chinook helicopter, call sign Extortion 17, and lifted off for their mission. On a moonless night in Afghanistan, on August 6, 2011, at approximately 2:22 AM local time, Gold Squadron of SEAL Team Six boarded a U.S.

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