NATO carries out over 50,000 air missions in Afghanist

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has carried out more than 50,000 air missions in Afghanistan over the past one-year period, ISAF spokesman said on Monday. "Over the past year ISAF has flown more than 50,000 rotary aircraft missions. Of those missions altogether three aircraft were lost through enemy activities of which one was last week's loss," Brigadier General Carsten Jacobson told reporters in ISAF weekly press briefing here. According to Jacobson, NATO and Afghan forces have carried out over 2,800 special operations which captured or killed Taliban leaders over the same period of time. "Ten-thousand missions were flown in the same timeframe for special operation forces, supporting over 2,800 operations," ISAF spokesman asserted. He made these comments ten days after American forces suffered its largest single-day loss in Afghanistan since the war began by U.S.-led Coalition against terror in Afghanistan nearly ten years ago. Thirty U.S. troops were killed when a CH-47 Chinook helicopter was shot down by a Taliban rocket propelled grenade on Saturday Aug. 6, many of whom were members of the Navy SEALs special force. Seven Afghan commandos and an Afghan interpreter were also killed in the air crash. Taliban insurgents fighting Afghan and NATO-led forces claimed of responsibility for shooting down the NATO's helicopter on August 6 which took place in Wardak province west of capital city of Kabul. "We will continue to take the fight to the enemy. We cannot be divided in our cause for a free Afghanistan," ISAF spokesman Gen. Carsten Jacobson further said.