By Tony Perry, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer (Reg req'rd)

CORONADO -- The music was loud and the beer was flowing, but there was an undercurrent of sadness this weekend at McP's, a legendary hangout for Navy SEALs.

One of the U.S. military smallest and most secretive combat units, the SEALs had just suffered the worst one-day death toll in the group's history. Eight SEALs were killed last week in the crash of a Chinook helicopter in the mountains of Afghanistan while on a rescue mission. But the news may get worse.

"The entire SEAL community is devastated," said a SEAL who, true to SEAL secrecy, would only give his name as David. "It's devastating, but it's also humbling. It shows you how dangerous this job is." The SEALs killed in the Chinook crash were from squads based in Virginia Beach, Va., and Pearl Harbor.

The SEAL unit was formed in 1963 at the urging of President John F. Kennedy. Until last week's helicopter crash killed eight SEALs and eight Army soldiers, the largest loss of life among the Navy commandos was during the Vietnam War, when five SEALs were killed in a helicopter crash.

In early spring 2002, American intelligence agents tipped off authorities in Bosnia-Herzegovina that something wasn't quite right with the "Benevolence International Foundation." Their reaction was swift, special forces stormed eight offices of the Islamic foundation in Sarajevo and in Zenica. They found weapons and explosives, videos and flyers calling for holy war. More importantly, however, they discovered a computer with a mysterious file entitled "Tarich Osama" -- Arabic for "Osama's Story".  

AFP - Despite a worldwide manhunt and an assault on Tora Bora
in Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden has managed to evade capture.

HELMAND July 10, 2005 -- Suspected Taliban gunmen ambushed a border patrol in the desert near the frontier with Pakistan, killing 10 Afghan soldiers and beheading them all, a provincial governor said Sunday.

The victims were part of a 25-member patrol in southern Helmand province that was attacked late Saturday by militants driving four four-wheel-drive pickups, said provincial Gov. Sher Mohammed Aghunzada. "The Taliban cut the heads off all the soldiers who were killed," he said. Aghunzada said the dead soldiers' bodies had been recovered.

The news comes a day after a purported Taliban spokesman, Mullah Latif Hakimi, claimed that the rebels had beheaded a U.S. Navy SEAL commando missing since June 28 in mountains in eastern Kunar province, also near the border with Pakistan.

BBC - Afghanistan Enduring ... and enduring ...