Afghanistan: "Deadliest Day" for US as 30 Troops Die When Copter Shot Down (Rivera/Rubin/Shanker)

In the deadliest day for American forces in the nearly decade-long war in Afghanistan, insurgents shot down a Chinook transport helicopter on Saturday, killing 30 Americans, including some Navy Seal commandos from the unit that killed Osama bin Laden, as well as 8 Afghans, American and Afghan officials said.

The helicopter, on a night-raid mission in the Tangi Valley of Wardak Province, to the west of Kabul, was most likely brought down by a rocket-propelled grenade, one coalition official said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, and they could hardly have found a more valuable target: American officials said that 22 of the dead were Navy Seal commandos, including members of Seal Team 6. Other commandos from that team conducted the raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan, that killed Bin Laden in May. The officials said that those who were killed Saturday were not involved in the Pakistan mission.

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Afghanistan: NATO Helicopters Break Taliban Siege of Intercontinental Hotel; At Least 18 Killed (Pajhwok News)

Complementing this report from Afghanistan's Pajhwok News, the BBC emphasises that the insurgents were killed by a NATO aerial attack on the rooftop of the Intercontinental Hotel. Afghanistan officials say one insurgent, hiding in a hotel room, subsequent blew himself up, also killing two police and a Spanish tourist.

Eight civilians, two policemen and eight Taliban fighters were among 18 killed in a suicide attack on the Kabul Intercontinental Hotel, the Ministry of Interior said.

The attack began around 10:30 PM Tuesday and lasted until 3:00 AM Wednesday morning.

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