good evening. russ is off. i m anthony mason. we begin tonight with the worst single blow to u.s. forces since the war in afghanistan began nearly 10 years ago. a helicopter crash has killed 30 americans, and early indications are that the taliban is to blame. elizabeth palmer in london has the latest. reporter: the chinook helicopter came down in wardak province just southwest of kabul. of the 30 americans aboard, 22 were members of the special operations navy seal team six, the same unit that killed osama bin laden. the other eight were army and air force personnel. a civilian translator, seven afghan commandos, and a specially trained dog also died. the crash site has now been cordoned off, about the taliban claim they shot down the chinook early this morning just as it was taking off after a raid on their fighters. u.s. military sources say it was called in as backup by another unit, which had run into trouble. local witnesses report the chinook was hit with a rocket-
this is the cbs evening news with russ mitchell. good evening. russ is off. i m anthony mason. we begin tonight with the worst single blow to u.s. forces since the war in afghanistan began nearly 10 years ago. a helicopter crash has killed 30 americans, and early indications are that the taliban is to blame. elizabeth palmer in london has the latest. reporter: the chinook helicopter came down in wardak province just southwest of kabul. of the 30 americans aboard, 22 were members of the special operations navy seal team six, the same unit that killed osama bin laden. the other eight were army and air force personnel. a civilian translator, seven afbegan commandos, and a specially trained dog also died. the crash site has now been cordoned off, about the the taliban claim they shot down the chinook early this morning just as it was taking off after a raid on their fighters. u.s. military sources say it was called in as backup by another unit which had run into trouble. lo