Timeline: Their tragic mission

Lt. Michael Murphy, two fellow Navy SEALs and 16 servicemen died in the Hindu Kush mountains of Afghanistan on June 28, 2005, in the worst single day for U.S. forces in Afghanistan since the invasion in October 2001.

Here is the story of that firefight as described by military and media reports and a local villager who witnessed the events. Locations are approximate.

The objective and the battle Operation Red Wing, as it was called, was a clandestine mission in 10,000-foot peaks along Afghanistan's border with Pakistan.

On the ground

DEPLOYMENT

On June 27, 2005, a team of Navy SEALs, including Lt. Michael Murphy, is dropped by helicopter at night, residents say, somewhere on a ridge between the Korengal and Shuraik valleys. Their objective: Kill or capture a leading Taliban figure that some reports have named as militia leader Ahman Shah.

MOVING NORTHEAST

Murphy's team moves into the Shuraik, down a mostly forested slope, where it is recognized by local villagers sympathetic to the Taliban. One of the villagers wanders into the team's position and is captured. Faced with the option of killing or releasing the villager, who might compromise them, they opt to release him.

PURSUED

Qari Muhammad Ismail, a guerrilla commander with forces in and around the Korengal Valley, sends fighters to track the SEALs and places teams with rocketpropelled grenades on ridges above the Shuraik Valley to attack any aircraft that might come in support of the Navy team.

Under attack

TAKING FIRE

Ismail's guerrillas attack the SEALs, probably on the western slope of the Shuraik Valley. The SEALs take rifle and RPG fire from three sides. Running down the mountain cliffs, Murphy notices that teammate Marcus Luttrell is pinned down. Murphy comes to his rescue and Luttrell eventually survives the battle.

CALLING FOR HELP

About 45 minutes into the exchange, Murphy climbs to higher ground and into an open area to signal for help from Bagram Air Base outside of Kabul. He is seriously wounded, but completes the call and continues fighting.

RESCUE ATTEMPT

 A Predator drone and a Chinook helicopter with special forces troops aboard flies to the aid of the SEALs. As the helicopter reaches the ridge atop the valley, it is shot down, apparently by Ismail's fighters. It crashes southeast of the Sawtalo Sar peak, killing 16 servicemen.

Fighting continues: Axelson and Dietz are wounded. Murphy, Axelson and Dietz defend their positions until they are mortally wounded. Their bodies are discovered days later.

ESCAPE

Meanwhile, Luttrell flees down the valley, toward the north. He is rescued by Muhammad Gulab, a shepherd and woodsman living in the village of Sabray.

SANCTUARY

Gulab's family protects Luttrell for about four days, while sending Gulab's brother to the U.S. base in Asadabad to seek help. After being alerted by Gulab's brother, U.S. troops rescue Luttrell in Sabray village, flying him and Muhammad Gulab to safety.

BOMBING

Operation continues days after the battle with a U.S. bombing of nearby Chichal.

About Kunar Province

Small, sparsely-populated province northeast of Kabul, near Pakistani border Embedded in the unforgivable terrain of the Hindu Kush mountains Dominated by Pashtun tribes, it is a hotbed of Islamic extremism.

The rescue gone wrong

Upon hearing Murphy's call for help, officials at Bagram Air Base responded first with an unmanned Predator drone, then a specially designed attack helicopter, the MH-47 Chinook.

Murphy's team reportedly was located by the infrared camera system of the Predator. Headquarters could see the team was surrounded by Taliban, making immediate close air support impossible.

The MH-47 sent in to rescue Murphy and his teammates was presumed to be shot down by a rocket-propelled grenade at low altitude, killing all 16 aboard.

Fitted with special equipment and night vision devices, the MH-47 can operate in hostile environments over all types of terrain at low altitudes.

CHITRAL DISTRICT

Presumed location of Osama bin Laden, 2005

SOURCES: NAVY SEALS; WASHINGTON POST; TIME MAGAZINE; GLOBAL SECURITY RESEARCHED

BY J. STEPHEN SMITH, JAMES RUPERT, ROD EYER