The Taliban is on the run and the US forces have reversed the momentum, said a top Pentagon official on Monday, cautioning against reading too much into a single combat incident in which more than 30 US soldiers was killed in Afghanistan.
"A single combat incident does not necessarily create water shed that anybody should be reading into what this means about the Taliban," Pentagon Spokesman Col Dave Lapan told reporters during an off camera briefing.
"At this point, it's a one-off incident," Lapan said. "We still have the Taliban on the run and have reversed the momentum that they have," he claimed, cautioned people against reading too much into a single combat incident.
In one of the deadliest American casualties in Afghanistan post 9/11, more than 30 US soldiers, including 20 from the elite SEAL commando force that was involved in the killing of Osama bin Laden in May this year, were killed last week.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta had recently asserted that the Taliban is on the run and it is only a matter of time that the terrorist outfit is eliminated from Afghanistan.
But the latest incident has made several analysts think otherwise. Lapan argued that while it is true that it was the largest loss of life in one particular incident, its a combat incident.
"Those things occur in combat, we take casualties, the Taliban take casualties. This one single incident does not represent any kind of water shed," he underlined.
He said the Taliban were to come back hard after the loss suffered last year. He said they are going to continue to inflict casualties not only on us but also the Afghans. "Those were the things that we are seeing," he told Pentagon reporters.
Meanwhile, the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan said that the CH-47 Chinook helicopter was reportedly fired on by an insurgent rocket-propelled grenade while transporting the US service members and Afghan commandos to the scene of an engagement between allied forces and insurgent forces.
The US service members on board included five aircrew members and 25 personnel from the US Special Operations Command, they said.
US will succeed in Afghanistan: Obama
The United States will succeed in its mission in Afghanistan despite a recent incident in which more than 30 American soldiers were killed in a chopper crash in the war-ravaged country, President Barack Obama said on Monday.
"I know that our troops will continue the hard work of transitioning to a stronger Afghan government and ensuring that Afghanistan is not a safe haven for terrorists. We will press on and we will succeed," Obama said his remarks to the White House correspondents on Monday.
There is no one who embodies the qualities that I mentioned more than the men and women of the United States armed forces, and this weekend we lost 30 of them when their helicopter crashed during a mission in Afghanistan, he said.
"And their loss is a stark reminder of the risks that our men and women in uniform take every single day on behalf of their country. Day after day, night after night, they carry out missions like this in the face of enemy fire and grave danger. And in this mission, as in so many others, they were also joined by Afghan troops, seven of whom lost their lives as well," he said.
Obama said now is the time to reflect on those US soldiers lost and the sacrifices of all who serve, as well as their families.
"These men and women put their lives on the line for the values that bind us together as a nation. They come from different places, and their backgrounds and beliefs reflect the rich diversity of America," he said.
