WASHINGTON/KABUL (Reuters) – NATO-led forces killed the Taliban militants responsible for shooting down a U.S. helicopter last weekend but not the insurgent leader targeted in the doomed mission, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan said on Wednesday.

The disclosure by General John Allen came during a briefing on the crash that killed 30 U.S. forces — most of them elite Navy SEALs — in the single deadliest incident for the U.S. military in the Afghan war. Eight Afghans were also killed in the crash in a remote valley southwest of Kabul.

KABUL (Reuters) – Late last Friday night, special forces troops from the NATO-led coalition launched an operation to capture a Taliban leader in an inaccessible valley southwest of Kabul.

A few hours later 38 troops — 30 of them Americans — lay dead in a transport helicopter destroyed in the worst single incident suffered by foreign forces in 10 years of war in Afghanistan.

KABUL (Reuters) – Late last Friday night, special forces troops from the NATO-led coalition launched an operation to capture a Taliban leader in an inaccessible valley southwest of Kabul.

A few hours later 38 troops — 30 of them Americans — lay dead in a transport helicopter destroyed in the worst single incident suffered by foreign forces in 10 years of war in Afghanistan.

KABUL (Reuters) – Late last Friday night, special forces troops from the NATO-led coalition launched an operation to capture a Taliban leader in an inaccessible valley southwest of Kabul.

A few hours later 38 troops — 30 of them Americans — lay dead in a transport helicopter destroyed in the worst single incident suffered by foreign forces in 10 years of war in Afghanistan.

KABUL (Reuters) – A helicopter that crashed two days ago, killing 38 people in the worst single incident in 10 years of war in Afghanistan, was carrying elite troops sent to help comrades in a firefight when it was likely hit by a rocket fired by the Taliban, NATO forces said Monday.

In the first official indication of a possible cause of the crash late Friday, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said the CH-47 Chinook helicopter was fired on “by an insurgent rocket-propelled grenade while transporting the U.S. service members and commandos to the scene of an ongoing engagement.”

KABUL (Reuters) – A NATO helicopter crashed in Afghanistan’s east on Monday but there were no apparent casualties, officials said, another stark reminder of the dangers of the war after 38 people were killed in an air incident, the largest single loss for foreign forces in 10 years.

A worrying surge of military deaths is being matched by record casualties among civilians, who continue to bear the brunt of a war that appears to have become bogged down despite claims of success from both sides.