Bodies of Two USN SEALS Recovered.

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Warrant Officer Corey Goodnature was killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan.

The bodies of two Navy SEALs have been found in Afghanistan a week after their team went missing, the U.S. military said today. One SEAL still is missing; another was rescued and is expected to make a full recovery, according to the Coalition Press Information Center. A U.S. helicopter crashed taking reinforcements to the team, killing all 16 service members on board.

Bodies of 2 Navy SEALs found in Afghanistan
One member of American team remains missing

Tuesday, July 5, 2005; Posted: 11:18 a.m. EDT (15:18 GMT)

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Senior Chief Petty Officer Dan Healy was killed in last week's chopper crash, his mother said.

WASHINGTON (CNN (http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/07/05/afghan.missingseals/index.html)) -- The bodies of two Navy SEALs have been found in Afghanistan a week after their four-man team went missing, the U.S. military said Tuesday.

One SEAL remains missing; another was rescued and is expected to make a full recovery, according to a statement from the U.S.-led Coalition Press Information Center. (Full story)

The two SEALs were found Monday during a combat search and rescue operation in Kunar province, the statement said. They were taken to a U.S. military hospital at Bagram Air Base, where they were pronounced dead.

The two bodies have not been identified, and the U.S. military has notified the families of all three missing SEALs.

The small reconnaissance team was heard from last when it called in for reinforcements June 28 near the Afghan-Pakistan border. The SEALs were participating in Operation Red Wing against insurgents in Kunar.

An American military helicopter crashed while bringing the reinforcements to the team, killing all 16 service members on board. (Full story)

It was the worst single-day death toll for U.S. forces since the Afghan war began almost four years ago. (Casualties identified)

The U.S. military says it believes insurgents shot down the MH-47 helicopter.

On Friday, the United States launched an airstrike on a compound that military officials described as a "known operating base for terrorist attacks."

The compound was sheltering insurgents connected to last week's chopper downing, military officials said.

Gov. Asadullah Wafa of Kunar province told news agencies that 17 civilians, including some women and children, were killed in the strike.

In a statement Monday, the Coalition Press Information Center said the number of civilians and "enemy terrorists" killed was unknown.

The statement said that a "medium-level terrorist leader" used the compound as a base and the airstrike was hastily ordered for fear the leader would leave the site.

"Certainly loss of innocent lives is something that anyone putting together an operation tries to avoid, so loss of innocent lives is something that our forces avoid," said Lt. Cindy Moore, a spokeswoman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

Moore also said it was common for "enemy forces" to move their families into areas where they are conducting operations, thus putting innocent civilians at risk.

CNN's Barbara Starr contributed to this report.

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Afghans Condemn U.S. Airstrike Deaths
Tuesday, July 5, 2005 2:19 PM EDT
The Associated Press (http://www.adelphia.net/news/read.php?id=12027010&ps=1012)
By AMIR SHAH

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghanistan on Tuesday condemned the killing of up to 17 civilians in a U.S. airstrike, and a senior American defense official confirmed the deaths of two Navy SEALs who were missing in action in the country's northeast.

The airstrike came Friday in Kunar province, which borders Pakistan, the area where a U.S. transport helicopter was downed late last month, killing 16 troops in the deadliest single blow to American forces since they ousted the Taliban in 2001.

"The president is extremely saddened and disturbed," said Jawed Ludin, President Hamid Karzai's chief of staff. "There is no way ... the killing of civilians can be justified. ... It's the terrorists we are fighting. It's not our people who should suffer."

A government team was on its way to the site to investigate the bombing, a Defense Ministry statement said.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the number of people killed in the airstrike was still unclear but that "roughly half" of the estimated 14 to 17 reported deaths may have been civilians. The rest were Taliban or al-Qaida fighters, he said.

Meanwhile, two members of the U.S. Navy's elite special forces branch who were missing in Kunar have been found dead, a senior U.S. defense official in Washington said Monday night. Another SEAL was rescued Saturday and the fate of a fourth was unknown.

The official who confirmed the recovery of the two bodies spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing effort to account for the missing U.S. servicemen in Afghanistan.

The team of SEALs was reported missing on June 28. A rescue effort that day ended in tragedy when the transport helicopter seeking to extract the team was shot down.

The serviceman rescued Saturday had taken shelter in a village elder's home before American forces were notified of his location and picked him up, said Kunar provincial Gov. Asadullah Wafa.

Speaking about the U.S. airstrike, Wafa told The Associated Press that an initial strike destroyed a house, and as villagers gathered to look at the damage, a U.S. warplane dropped a second bomb on the same target, killing 17 of them, including three women and children.

He said it was unclear who was killed in the initial attack in the tiny village of Chechal. "Maybe some militants were killed, but I don't know," he said. "The 17 people were killed in the second bombing."

The U.S. military said the attack was carried out "with precision-guided munitions that resulted in the deaths of an unknown number of enemy terrorists and noncombatants."

"The targeted compound was a known operating base for terrorist attacks in Kunar province as well as a base for a medium-level terrorist leader," it said. "Battle damage assessment is currently ongoing."

The statement added U.S. forces "regret the loss of innocent lives and follow stringent rules of engagement specifically to ensure that noncombatants are safeguarded. However, when enemy forces move their families into the locations where they conduct terrorist operations, they put these innocent civilians at risk."

The civilians are the latest victims in an unprecedented spate of violence that has left about 700 people dead and threatened to sabotage three years of progress toward peace. Afghan officials insist the violence will not disrupt landmark legislative elections slated for September.

A purported Taliban spokesman, Mullah Latif Hakimi, claimed last week that militants had captured one of the SEALs. He said the "high-ranking American" was caught in the area where the helicopter went down.

Hakimi, who also claimed insurgents shot down the helicopter, often calls news organizations to take responsibility for attacks, and the information frequently proves exaggerated or untrue. His exact tie to the Taliban leadership is unclear.

U.S. officials said they had no evidence indicating any service members had been taken into captivity.

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AP Military Writer Robert Burns contributed to this report from Washington.