Nine NATO troops were killed in a helicopter crash in the insurgent heartland of southern Afghanistan yesterday, making this year the deadliest year for international forces since the war began.
The Taliban, which have been waging an increasingly deadly insurgency against the Afghan government and foreign troops since the 2001 US-led invasion ousted them from power, immediately claimed responsibility.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said the cause of the crash was “under investigation,” adding: “There are no reports of enemy fire in the area.”
PHOTO: AFP
The helicopter came down in the Daychopan district of Zabul Province in the Taliban stronghold of southern Afghanistan, provincial spokesman Mohammad Jan Rasoulyar said.
“We don’t know the cause of the crash or the number of casualties,” he said.
Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi said the insurgents shot the helicopter down and killed “more than 10 foreign soldiers.”
Another NATO soldier, an Afghan soldier and a US civilian were injured, ISAF said, but it did not identify the nationalities of the dead troops.
“We have no more details at the moment because the helicopter recovery operation is underway,” an ISAF spokesman told reporters on condition of anonymity.
The incident brings to 529 the number of foreign troops killed this year, according to a tally based on the count kept by icasualties.org, surpassing the previous record of 521 deaths last year.
A total of 2,097 coalition troops have now died since the US-led invasion of 2001 that ousted the Islamist Taliban regime, setting off a brutal insurgency that has also killed thousands of Afghans.
The US Marines and US Army dominate the foreign forces concentrated in hotspots of the southern provinces of Helmand, Kandahar and Zabul.
After only nine months, this year has now become the deadliest year of the long war, with the extra deployment of international forces to nearly 150,000 drawing more battlefield engagements, leading to a spike in casualties.
June was the deadliest month of the war for coalition troops, with 103 fatalities, according to a count based on the independent icasualties.org figures.
Ten foreign troops, mostly American, were killed in a series of attacks across the country on June 22, and another 10 ISAF soldiers died in bombings in the south and east on June 7.
Until recently, NATO identified US casualties, while leaving coalition partners to identify their own dead separately.
That changed earlier this month, and US casualties are no longer revealed.
The US and NATO have increased to almost 150,000 the number troops trying to quell the insurgency that has spread across the country, with the Taliban now present in almost every one of the 34 provinces.
Their influence is strongest in the south and the eastern provinces that border Pakistan, where the Taliban leadership is said to be taking refuge, and from where attacks on Afghan targets are planned and funded.
US President Barack Obama ordered up an extra 30,000 forces in December as part of a renewed counter-insurgency strategy focusing on the south.
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said last week that US strategy appeared to be working and that he was cautiously optimistic at signs of progress.
Obama has issued a deadline of the middle of next year for US forces to begin drawing down, adding a sense of urgency to such tasks as training of Afghan forces so they can take over responsibility for the country’s security.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS