THE first sign of trouble was a radio message requesting immediate extraction. A four-man team of US Navy Seal commandos had run into heavy enemy fire on a remote, thickly forested trail in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan.

Trouble turned to disaster when a US special forces helicopter carrying 16 men was shot down as it landed at the scene, killing all on board.

Almost two weeks later, a mission that led to the worst US combat losses in Afghanistan since the invasion in 2001 has turned into an extraordinary manhunt. It has also opened an intriguing new front in the coalition's battle against terrorism.

The story of Operation Red Wing, a US-led search for Taliban and al-Qa'ida guerillas in the mountain wilderness of Kunar province, contains remarkable human drama and an unresolved military mystery.

For five days, amid the hostile peaks and ravines along Afghanistan's border with Pakistan, a lone US commando eluded the guerillas who had killed at least two of his colleagues and destroyed the Chinook helicopter.

When the unnamed Seal finally collapsed from exhaustion he was found by a friendly Afghan villager who summoned US forces. The subsequent search for his colleagues turned up two bodies and the manhunt for the fourth commando continues this weekend despite claims by Taliban guerillas yesterday that he had been captured and beheaded.

"We killed him at 11 o'clock today. We killed him using a knife and chopped off his head," declared Abdul Latif Hakimi, a Taliban spokesman who has made several false claims in the past.

Yet whatever the final death toll from the worst incident in the history of the Seals - the Sea Air Land commandos - there were tantalising hints that the original mission had been far from routine.

According to former special forces officers and other military sources, the four-man Seal strike team may have come too close to one of the US-led coalition's highest-priority targets - perhaps Mullah Muhammad Omar, the former Taliban leader, or even Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qa'ida. Other military sources suggested the target was a regional Taliban commander suspected of links with al-Qa'ida.

More than 300 US troops were combing the area for signs of the missing commando and the militants who apparently used a portable rocket-propelled grenade launcher to destroy the Chinook.

Other helicopters and remote-controlled aerial drones were flying over deep, inaccessible valleys. Rainstorms were slowing the search, and there was a danger of growing local hostility after claims that up to 25 civilians died when US aircraft bombed a compound in Kunar province last weekend.

US officials insisted the compound was used by militants and one spokesman said the attack with precision-guided weapons was part of an intelligence-driven operation.

But Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan's pro-US President, warned Washington that civilian casualties could erode public support for the coalition.

It was late in the evening of Tuesday, June 28, that Lieutenant Michael Murphy and the three members of his specialist team reported an encounter with the enemy.

Pentagon spokesmen said Murphy's unit was engaged in general reconnaissance as part of a sweep through the region amid fears that the Taliban and al-Qa'ida had quietly been regrouping and were preparing for an Iraq-style insurgency.

Other special forces sources said small Seal units such as Murphy's were primarily designed for concealment and stealth, which indicated a more specific mission.

Its insertion represented an extraordinary risk, said the author of an influential military blog known as Wretchard. They would be operating in an area known to be a stronghold of the Taliban, where any contact with the enemy automatically meant they would be grossly overmatched.

Another source noted that Murphy's unit bore all the hallmarks of a long-range sniper team sent to hunt down a particular target. US Navy Seals are trained to spend long periods operating clandestinely. The fact that the US did not send in several hundred troops for a sweep instead of the four-man reconnaissance team strongly suggests the team's mission was to fix a very high target before it could flee from an airmobile assault, Wretchard said.

Whatever the team's real objective, it found itself trapped in heavy rain with darkness falling. Seal veterans boast that they never call for help unless absolutely desperate. Exactly what befell Murphy and his team remains unknown, but commanders at Bagram airbase near Kabul wasted no time in dispatching eight more Seals on a helicopter crewed by eight members of an elite army unit.

As it was coming in to land in the Waigal valley, near the provincial capital of Asadabad, the helicopter was struck by what officers believe was a rocket-propelled grenade fired from the cover of nearby trees.

Lieutenant-General James Conway, chief of operations at the Pentagon, described it as a pretty lucky shot, but when communications with the Chinook were lost, commanders were taking no chances.

The next wave of troops landed a safe distance away and took 24 hours to reach the site, where it was confirmed that all 16 men on the helicopter had died.

For the four Seals on the ground, a desperate battle for survival had begun.

Their story may not be told in full until the fate of the fourth member of the team is clear - the one Seal who survived has been debriefed by military officers but the Pentagon has released only the barest outline of his story for fear of compromising continuing operations in the area.

From the details released, it appears the Seals may have dumped their backpacks to move faster on steep terrain. Former special forces sources said that when facing a superior enemy, the commandos would give each other covering fire as they mounted a phased retreat.

Coalition commanders acknowledge that for all their superior weaponry and communications, US forces are at a disadvantage in fighting in the Afghan mountains.

At some point in the mountain battle, Murphy, 29, was killed. So was Petty Officer Danny Dietz, 25. But at least one of the four Seals survived. When he was found last weekend he was several kilometres from the helicopter wreckage. A friendly tribal elder notified authorities that he was caring for a wounded American and he was airlifted to Bagram.

The Sunday Times

             Rites honor fallen SEAL

A team of elite Navy SEALs honored a fallen teammate at a memorial service in Los Altos Monday afternoon.

Petty Officer 2nd Class Matthew Gene Axelson, 29, of Cupertino died in Afghanistan's Kunar province last month in the deadliest operation carried out by a Navy special-operations team since World War II.

On Monday, hundreds of mourners packed the First Baptist Church of Los Altos, dabbing away tears as they watched a slide show portraying a young Axelson dressing up for Halloween, playing miniature golf and getting married.

For two hours, friends who knew Axelson from the church and from the SEALs reminisced about his quiet self-confidence and his focus on what was important -- family, faith and country.

No members of Axelson's immediate family spoke during the service, though his parents, Cordell and Donna, his brother, Jeff, and his wife, Cindy, met with mourners at a reception in the church gym after the service.

Altogether, 11 SEALs -- members of the Navy's Sea, Air and Land units -- and eight Army Special Operations aviators died when a four-man reconnaissance team that included Axelson came under fire June 28. Only one SEAL survived.

A graduate of Monta Vista High School in Cupertino, Axelson joined the SEALs after graduating from California State University-Chico.

Friends say Axelson was following in the footsteps of another member of his church, the First Baptist Church of Los Altos. Now retired from the SEALs, Ross Hangebrauck, 31, brought a video to show to the mourners ``to better understand what Matt was part of and what he stood for.''

The smallest of the military's Special Operations units, the SEALs pride themselves on their intense fraternal bond and sense of honor. ``We answer to a higher moral calling, on a path that requires us to take and give life,'' the narrator explained, as video flashed by of SEALs jumping out of planes and training in extreme conditions. ``It is this dedication to ideals greater than life that gives us strength.''

Gary Carroll, who was a youth leader at the church when Axelson was growing up, said Axelson's quiet integrity and love of adventure made him a natural for the SEALs.

Axelson was a ``dark alley guy,'' Carroll said -- a guy who would follow a friend into a dangerous place without asking any questions. ``He wouldn't run,'' Carroll said. ``He wouldn't say much, but he'd go with you.''

Scott Spielman, an uncle, recalled how one of his acquaintances had asked why Axelson had signed up for such a dangerous mission. ``Matt fought for a noble and worthy cause, to protect our freedoms -- yours and mine,'' Spielman said.

He pointed to a quote from the British philosopher John Stuart Mill that was emblazoned on a shirt Axelson received as part of his SEAL training. ``War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things,'' the quote goes, concluding that it is worse to have nothing to fight for.