Military

They left Friday to investigate the site of a missile attack Monday in southeastern
Afghanistan, where an unmanned Predator drone fired at a group of suspected al-Qaida
members.

The private Afghan Islamic Press reported that U.S. troops arrived in Zawar Khili by
helicopter. Zawar Khili is about 20 miles southwest of Khost and some 10 miles from the
Pakistani border. The troops reportedly met with village elders.

Task Force Rakkasan commander Col. Frank Wiercinski said the soldiers, airlifted in
CH-47 Chinook helicopters, arrived at the undisclosed location on Friday.

He said their position was at an altitude of 10,000 feet and was an austere,
challenging environment with high winds and snow.

He termed the deployment "a site exploration."

"They executed an extremely difficult insertion mission," Wiercinski said.
"All were inserted safely. All aircraft returned to base."

Wiercinski gave few specifics of the mission, which had been postponed for several days
because of poor weather conditions, he said.

The colonel attributed the weather delays to heavy cloud cover, which made helicopters
flights into the region highly problematic.

The troops were to remain in position until they had completed their objective, he
said.

The troops had not returned as of Sunday night.