The Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan claimed it shot down a Pakistani Army helicopter that was transporting foreign diplomats in the northern part of the country yesterday, and released a video showing its fighters training on a ‘SAM-7’ (SA-7) anti-aircraft missile to support its claim. The Pakistani government has vehemently denied the aircraft was shot down, and has stated that it crashed due to engine failure.
The Pakistani Army Mi-17 was part of a convoy of three helicopters that were transporting foreign diplomatic personnel to the opening of a ski resort in the Naltar Valley in Gilgit-Baltistan in northern Pakistan. Seven people, including the ambassadors of Norway and the Philippines, the wives of the ambassador of Indonesia and the High Commissioner of Malaysia, the two Army helicopter pilots, and a crew member were killed in the crash. Several other foreign dignitaries were injured in the crash.
The helicopter was close to a landing zone when it spiraled out of control and landed on top of a school. There were no casualties on the ground, as the building was empty.
The Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan claimed it shot down the Mi-17 immediately after the crash. The Pakistani government denied the reports, and within hours of the crash, said the helicopter suffered from technical malfunctions. A Pakistani military officer said the helicopter had “11 hours of flying following regular servicing,” Dawn reported.
Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary, Aizaz Ahmad called the Taliban’s claim “bogus,” and said the military deployed thousands of soldiers to secure the surrounding area, Xinhua reported.
The Long War Journal cannot independently confirm the Taliban’s propaganda claim that it shot down the Mi-17.
The Taliban first stated yesterday morning that its “Special Task Force” and “Taliban Intelligence Agency” planned and executed the attack, and that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was the target.
“[The] Special unit of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan STF (Special Task Force) and TIA [Taliban Intelligence Agency] had devised a special plan to target Nawaz Sharif during his visit today,” Muhammad Khurasani, the spokesman for the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan said in an email sent to The Long War Journal. “However, Nawaz Sharif escaped as he was in another helicopter. And an Mi-17 of Pakistan was targeted with an anti-aircraft [missile]. As a result pilots of the aircraft and several foreign ambassadors joining Nawaz Sharif in the visit were killed.”
The Taliban have recently promoted attacks by the Special Task Force, which is also known as the Mujahideen Special Group, and showed the unit preparing for attacks at the Mehdi Alaih Rizwan Training Center. [See LWJ report, Pakistani Taliban promotes ‘Muhajideen Special Group,’ training camp.]
Khurasani then said the Taliban “will be presenting the shoulder launched missile (SAM 7) used in this holy action and its training to the entire world” and accused the media of being partial to the Pakistan government.
This morning, Khurasani emailed a video to The Long War Journal that shows a Taliban fighter displaying a SA-7 and training other fighters on its use. The trainer instructs the Taliban fighters on how to target an airplane. The video does not include footage of the Taliban targeting a helicopter.
The Long War Journal cannot verify that the anti-aircraft missile displayed in the Taliban is operational, or was used in an attack that is claimed by the Taliban.
While the Gilgit-Baltistan administrative district of Pakistan is not a traditional area of operations for the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, jihadist groups are known to operate camps in the northern region. Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, and Harakat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, three jihadist groups that are closely allied with the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, are all known to operate training camps in what used to be known as the “Northern Areas.” [See LWJ report, US sanctions Pakistani Lashkar-e-Taiba and al Qaeda leaders.]
Screen shots from the Taliban video of the SA-7:
13 Comments
From the way that I understand the situation, Pakistan’s ISI supports elements of the Taliban. It’s part of Pakistan’s foreign policy. They want a buffer to exist between themselves and Afghanistan.
The ISPR an Taliban both have a history of lying.
in 2004, an MI17 helicopter was shot down by Taliban killing 13 soldiers
in 2009, an MI17 was again brought down in Orakzai (Taliban controlled area) killing 41 soldiers! (The army was able to retrieve 25 bodies)
Pakistan Military claimed these were due to “technical faults” but witnesses said otherwise!
Pictures depict a Soviet SA-7 Grail, there is no such armament as a SAM-7.
Propaganda goes hand in hand with conflict but question is what are the actual facts. There are conflicting statements, alleged technical failure given by military versus tail rotor allegedly hit by SAM-7B given by TTP or perhaps something entirely different as the cause of crash. Witnesses are giving conflicting reports. What is needed is an independent inquiry as there are more questions than answers but it is highly unlikely that this will happen. I note the warning also in TTP statement that planes will be targeted at “the appropriate time”. Officials completely ignored warnings before Peshawar Army School attack so am not hopeful for security for those travelling in the air in future especially with new technical developments alleged by Taliban!
Taliban are Iranian stooges who are disguised.how could they get this weapon and we all know that Iran and Russia are hand in glove.
Bill,
Love the page, been reading for years. Just a quick technical note; think the designation is SA-7, rather than SAM-7.
The day chosen was Friday.
Victims were from smaller nations.
Few people knew who boarded each aircraft each time.
Taliban has good contacts in Army.
Taliban warned Nawaz Sharif through this act.
They have an issue with him . It can not be put off.
That is the very reason the army and the press rallied to his support.
Its i witnessed by the victims and they elaborate that Helicopter was swinging while about landing. Taliban wants to claim everything. They might accept the responsibility of earth quake in Nepal.
One has to wonder where they are getting these SAM-7 missles. They are of Russian origin. How are the Taliban aquiring them?
Ah, we have seen this before, two competing terrorist groups issuing competing claims as to who did what, when and who gets the credit for this or that.
A horrible tragedy that so easily could have been avoided by not going. Why either of these nations (Norway and the Philippines) really needs to have ambassadors in Pakistan is of course, another topic.
Pakistan seems like the perfect place for a “kiosk embassy”- a computer terminal with a webcam and a Skype connection and a button that says “Place call to embassy”.
The two groups disagree over who brought down the helicopter and by what contrivance or device and their disagreement forms an issue.
On One hand we have the terrorist group known as ‘TTP’ who claims to have shot the helicopter down using a common handheld SAM. They made their claim first, before the other terrorist group issued their statement with their own claim.
On the other hand, the second group, known to the world as the “Pakistani government” issued a statement that in effect claimed that they themselves took the helicopter down using an unorthodox but proven method of the standard old helicopter, with the addition of ” regular servicing” and “engine failure” (sic). They do have their own in-house mechanics and by using faulty equipment and shoddy repairs and perhaps a little ISI oversight. they might have pulled this one off as they have shamelessly and consistantly claimed this very tactic in the past. They went a bit further than the first terrorist group in so far as they denied the accuracy of the other terror groups earlier affirmation, claiming all the credit for their own terror organization.
As evidence to compete with the other terror group they issued statements, one of which claimed “The crash occurred after 11 hours of flying following regular servicing”.
With a bird 13 years in service, what is the intended implication here? Why do they say “after 11 hours of flying after regular servicing.” That sounds to me like something you say as evidence to deny it was mechanical failure (recent service, just passed all inspections, parts replaced, etc) Instead (from this LWJ article) ‘The Pakistani government has vehemently denied the aircraft was shot down, and has stated that it crashed due to engine failure.’
Bear in mind, the Pakistanis do not pledge their opinion that such equipment failure could have or was likely to have occurred but they pledge with veracity that it has – using words meaning just that, without the aid of any inference, and susceptible of no other meaning.
Seriously? How inspiring for their troops this must be. “Dont worry men, the data is in. Our equipment is faulty and will fail when we need it most. We promise. Now, get out there and clear the passes”
I’m shaking my head on this one. What say you?
They support the “good” Taliban, IE those fighting in Afghanistan only. The “bad” Taliban are fighting to overthrow the Pakistani state and, ostensibly, are not supported by the ISI. Unless maybe you wanted to whack the Prime Minister with plausible denaibility, but that’s a little extreme for even the ISI.
I believe the ambassador who said he’s 99.9% sure it was mechanical. This from the Whirly bird doing just that prior to crashing. Tail rotor sounds plausible. Three clicks is too far a SAM shot for them, I think.
He is 99.9 % sure? so in other words, you are saying even the ambassador thinks it might have been shot down. (.10)
Never expect the truth out of an ambassador as he is there to tell lies and to listen to lies..