- KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan's
ruling Taliban on Saturday said they had shot down a U.S. helicopter in
the night in an operation south of the capital, Kabul, killing up to 50
U.S. soldiers.
-
- The aircraft was brought down after the Taliban opened
fire on the helicopter in the Nawoor district of Ghazni province at around
11:00 p.m. (1:30 p.m. Friday) while it was trying to rescue another aircraft
that had crashed in the area, said Qari Fazil Rabi, an Information Ministry
official.
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- "All together between 40 to 50 Americans have died
in both these incidents," he told Reuters.
-
- "You can see the bodies of the Americans on board
the helicopters with their uniforms."
-
- A U.S. helicopter on a special forces mission in Afghanistan
crashed in bad weather at about 1830 GMT on Friday, injuring four crew
members, but all were rescued and evacuated from the country, the Pentagon
said.
-
- The reports could not be independently confirmed.
-
- The Taliban embassy had been notified of the incident
by Education Minister and top government spokesman Mullah Amir Khan Muttaqi,
a source said.
-
- In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel
Dan Stoneking said of the latest Taliban claims: "As we stated from
day one, we don't respond to Taliban claims because more often that not,
they turn out to be false."
-
- Pressed further, all Stoneking would say to counter the
Taliban report was that the Pentagon's statements on Friday evening about
the crashed U.S. helicopter "speak for themselves."
-
- CNN said the U.S. Central Command denied the Taliban
claims. "No U.S. helicopters were shot down in Afghanistan,"
it quoted the Central Command saying.
-
- On Friday, the Defense Department said: "At approximately
1:30 p.m. EST today, a U.S. military helicopter crash-landed in Afghanistan
due to severe weather.
-
- "The landing severely damaged the helicopter. Four
members of the crew were injured, none life-threatening," the statement
said. "The entire crew has been safely recovered out of Afghanistan
and the four injured service members are now receiving medical care."
-
- The Pentagon said F-14 Tomcats from the carrier USS Theodore
Roosevelt destroyed the damaged helicopter, a standard U.S. military procedure
in cases where high-tech items are lost in hostile areas and might be used
by an enemy.
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- Another helicopter rescued the crewmembers from the downed
craft.
-
- The Information Ministry's Rabi said the helicopter had
come initially to rescue another helicopter shot down earlier and which
had been destroyed by a jet that flew into the area and dropped bombs on
the fallen aircraft.
-
- "The burned flesh and clothes and other items of
the Americans are still lying there," the private Pakistan-based Afghan
Islamic Press (AIP) quoted Muttaqi as saying.
-
- "Burnt bodies are lying here and there," he
was quoted as saying.
-
- Heavy snow was falling in the area, he said.
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- Rabi said that since the start of the U.S. military campaign
four weeks ago, the Taliban had shot down six American planes -- one reconnaissance
aircraft, one jet and four helicopters.
-
- None of these claims could be independently verified.
-
- However, the Pentagon has said it has lost an unmanned
drone spy plane, a Predator aircraft was shot down on Friday and one helicopter
lost its undercarriage in a lightning ground strike near the southern Afghan
city of Kandahar in the middle of last month.
-
- It has said another helicopter crashed on landing near
an air base in Pakistan, killing two of those on board and injuring three,
during the ground operation.
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- http://www.abcnews.go.com/wire/US/reuters20011103_79.html
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