Reading the initial reporting of the rescue attempt of aid worker Linda Norgrove that ended in her unfortunate death, the stories all seem to point to US Special Forces -- or at least an elite team related to the SF...ie potentially Delta.
But if you dig a little bit longer and browse through the forums populated by SF BTDTs, you'll quickly learn that it appears as if it was a SEAL team that conducted the complex raid.
The UK press has been reliably obsessed with this story and it took less than 24 hours for their machine to grind into gear and get some inside scoop on how it went down. It's important to take all of this with a hefty dose of salt, but I'd bet dollars to doughnuts half of it is true.
According to the Daily Mail, this is some of the inside gouge:
Dressed in black, wearing night-vision goggles and carrying automatic weapons and grenades, a small band of Navy Seals – the U.S. equivalent of the SAS – were informed that over their earpieces that the situation was a 'go.'Unaware that the compound had been located and was about to be stormed, some Taliban gunmen had dozed off. Miss Norgrove slept in a separate mud-floored room with women and children.
First, a small party of men – the ‘forward extraction’ unit – crept into the compound on foot. Snipers were deployed to pick off anyone attempting to flee.
With the forward team in place, the clatter of helicopters shattered the silence and five more Navy Seals abseiled down ropes into the compound.
The Seals then sprinted to the building where Miss Norgrove was being held, as 150 other U.S. troops surrounded the compound.
Overhead, Predator drones and Apache attack helicopters hovered, ready to provide air support. But the Taliban were not prepared to give up their prize lightly.
Using Colt M4A1 automatic rifles and grenades, five Navy Seals were engaged in a vicious fire-fight as they attempted to get to the hostage. She was being guarded by at least eight terrorists.
Despite the fierce Taliban resistance, the Seals managed to fight their way towards the Miss Norgrove’s building. And then, with six Taliban gunmen already dead, one of the Seals threw a grenade through the door.
The SF vets are reacting with understandable denial over reports that the rescue team were "special forces."
But the real question here is whether the SEAL threw a frag grenade or a flashbang. You'd think that in a rescue situation, you'd be pretty reluctant to throw a frag. So is it possible that Norgrove could have been fatally injured from a flashbang?
The report goes on to say she was wounded in the blast, but succombed to her injuries on the flight to the aid station...Again, sounds like a frag. But why a frag in this scenario?
