Wikileaks Gives A Heads Up To The Taliban That Their Heat Seeking Missiles Are Effective

A US Chinook helicopter in Afghanistan Photo: Reutersr/Tim Wimborne

Wikileaks Afghanistan: Taliban Used Heat-Seeker Missiles Against Nato Helicopter -- The Telegraph

Taliban insurgents used a heat-seeking missile to down a Nato transport helicopter in Helmand killing a British soldier, five Americans and a Canadian, the documents show.

The American Chinook helicopter, code-named Flipper, was struck by a surface-to-air missile shortly after taking off from a landing pad close to the Helmand River, according to a report from May 2007.

It was "engaged and struck," the report said, just after crossing the Helmand River, in Afghanistan. "The missile struck the aircraft in the left engine. The impact of the missile projected the aft end of the aircraft up as it burst into flames followed immediately by a nose dive into the crash site with no survivors."

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More News On The Taliban Having Access To Heat Seeking Missiles

Wikileaks documents suggest Taliban has capacity to fire on aircraft -- The Guardian
Afghanistan war logs: US covered up fatal Taliban missile strike on Chinook -- The Guardian
Afghanistan war logs: Heat-seeking Javelin missile kills Afghan soldier -- The Guardian
Heat-seeking missile caused crash that killed Canadian military photographer: WikiLeaks -- Montreal Gazette/Post Media News

My Comment: This specific document leak (the Taliban having heat seeking missiles) will probably cost lives in Afghanistan. This news was not covered before because it would give a heads up to the Taliban on how effective these expensive missiles are. Now .... thanks to Wikileaks and the media's coverage of this story .... the Taliban are aware of this information and will probably re-double their efforts to get more missiles.

Update: Actually New York Times, Military Has Said The Taliban Use IR-MANPADS -- Defense Tech