A precision airstrike by USAF F-16s killed the Taliban fighters responsible for shooting down the CH-47 helicopter Aug. 6, which killed all 38 US and Afghan troops on board, Marine Corps Gen. John Allen told reporters via satellite connection Aug. 10. Speaking during his first press briefing since taking command of international security forces in Afghanistan, Allen said special operators tracked down Taliban leader Mullah Mohibullah and the insurgent who fired the fatal shot as they were attempting to flee the country. Coalition forces ordered the airstrike around midnight Aug. 8 in a continuation of a mission to dismantle an enemy network in Wardak province, reported AFPS. “This does not ease our loss, but we must, and we will, continue to relentlessly pursue the enemy,” said Allen. The Pentagon officially announced the names of those lost Thursday. The airmen killed were: TSgt. John W. Brown, 33, of Tallahassee, Fla.; SSgt. Andrew W. Harvell, 26, of Long Beach, Calif.; TSgt. Daniel L. Zerbe, 28, of York, Pa. All three airmen were assigned to the 24th Special Tactics Squadron at Pope Field, N.C.
While U.S. defense officials have spent much of the past decade warning that China is the nation’s pacing threat and its People’s Liberation Army represents an urgent threat in the Indo-Pacific, several defense researchers are skeptical that the PLA has the human capital, the structural ability, or the political appetite…