Five Americans, a Briton and a Canadian died when a Chinook helicopter was apparently shot down in Afghanistan's most volatile province, officials said. The Taliban claimed responsibility.
NATO's International Security Assistance Force said other troops rushing to the scene were ambushed and had to call in air support to drive off their attackers.
Initial reports suggested the helicopter was hit with a rocket-propelled grenade on Wednesday evening, said the US official, who insisted on speaking anonymously because the crash was still under investigation. NATO said there were no survivors.
A purported Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, claimed in a telephone call that militants shot the helicopter down in southern Helmand Province, the world's largest opium poppy-growing region, where combat has been heavy in recent months.
Ahmadi did not offer any proof for his claim, but he specified the helicopter crashed in the Kajaki district hours before NATO reported that information. Kajaki is the site of a hydroelectric dam and the scene of recent fighting.
NATO said the CH-47 Chinook was carrying a crew of five and two military passengers when it crashed. The cause was "being determined by military officials," it said.
According to a US military official, the British and Canadian soldiers were passengers on the helicopter. The official requested anonymity because the dead soldiers' home countries had not yet publicly released their identities.
NATO said troops going to the crash site were ambushed by enemy fighters and the unit called in an airstrike "to eliminate the enemy threat."
It did not say if the troops were from the US-led coalition, NATO's force or the Afghan army. One civilian was injured by gunfire.
The CH-47 Chinook, a heavy transport helicopter with two rotors, can carry around 40 soldiers plus a small crew. The fact it was flying at night suggested the aircraft might have been carrying troops on a nighttime air assault.
Kajaki is the site of a large US-funded hydroelectric dam now being repaired so it can provide electricity to the southern city of Kandahar. British troops, who make up the bulk of the forces in Helmand Province, have been engaged in fierce fighting around the dam protecting it.
Meanwhile, a Taliban ambush of a police convoy in the south yesterday left 16 policemen dead, the interior ministry said, in one of the deadliest attacks against the fledgling police service.
The three-vehicle police convoy was on its way from the troubled province of Zabul to the capital when it was ambushed, ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said.
"Sixteen police were martyred and another six police were wounded today at 8:30am in an ambush by the enemies of peace in Afghanistan," he said.
There were also casualties on the Taliban side, Bashary said, without giving a number.
Taliban militants fled the area after army reinforcements arrived, a press statement said.
The militants regularly attack Afghan policemen with roadside bombings and ambushes.
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts said. Footage of the collapse on Wednesday showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside into the hamlet of Blatten. Swiss Development Cooperation disaster risk reduction adviser Ali Neumann said that while the role of climate change in the case of Blatten “still needs to be investigated,” the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere — the part of the world covered by frozen water. “Climate change and
DENIAL: Musk said that the ‘New York Times was lying their ass off,’ after it reported he used so much drugs that he developed bladder problems Elon Musk on Saturday denied a report that he used ketamine and other drugs extensively last year on the US presidential campaign trail. The New York Times on Friday reported that the billionaire adviser to US President Donald Trump used so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that he developed bladder problems. The newspaper said the world’s richest person also took ecstasy and mushrooms, and traveled with a pill box last year, adding that it was not known whether Musk also took drugs while heading the so-called US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after Trump took power in January. In a
RSS