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.
‘SHORTSIGHTED’: Using aid as leverage is punitive, would not be regarded well among Pacific Island nations and would further open the door for China, an academic said New Zealand has suspended millions of dollars in budget funding to the Cook Islands, it said yesterday, as the relationship between the two constitutionally linked countries continues to deteriorate amid the island group’s deepening ties with China. A spokesperson for New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters said in a statement that New Zealand early this month decided to suspend payment of NZ$18.2 million (US$11 million) in core sector support funding for this year and next year as it “relies on a high trust bilateral relationship.” New Zealand and Australia have become increasingly cautious about China’s growing presence in the Pacific
The team behind the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile yesterday published their first images, revealing breathtaking views of star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. More than two decades in the making, the giant US-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The new image
ESPIONAGE: The British government’s decision on the proposed embassy hinges on the security of underground data cables, a former diplomat has said A US intervention over China’s proposed new embassy in London has thrown a potential resolution “up in the air,” campaigners have said, amid concerns over the site’s proximity to a sensitive hub of critical communication cables. The furor over a new “super-embassy” on the edge of London’s financial district was reignited last week when the White House said it was “deeply concerned” over potential Chinese access to “the sensitive communications of one of our closest allies.” The Dutch parliament has also raised concerns about Beijing’s ideal location of Royal Mint Court, on the edge of the City of London, which has so
Canada and the EU on Monday signed a defense and security pact as the transatlantic partners seek to better confront Russia, with worries over Washington’s reliability under US President Donald Trump. The deal was announced after a summit in Brussels between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa. “While NATO remains the cornerstone of our collective defense, this partnership will allow us to strengthen our preparedness ... to invest more and to invest smarter,” Costa told a news conference. “It opens new opportunities for companies on both sides of the
RSS