- KABUL (Reuters) - A U.S.
military helicopter crashed on Sunday near the American military headquarters
in Afghanistan, killing five personnel and injuring seven, the U.S. Central
Command said.
-
- "The cause of the crash is unknown and under military
investigation," a statement from Central Command said.
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- The helicopter crashed near Bagram Air Base and the troops
on board were involved in the latest U.S. operation in Afghanistan, dubbed
"Mountain Resolve," it said.
-
- Bagram Air Base, just north of the Afghan capital, is
the headquarters for 11,500 U.S.-led troops hunting remnants of the Taliban
and al Qaeda network in Afghanistan. Another 5,000 international peacekeepers
guard Kabul.
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- EXPLOSIVE DEVICE INJURES TWO
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- The crash came after two soldiers from the U.S.-led force
in Afghanistan were wounded on Sunday when their vehicle hit an explosive
device near Shkin, a base close to the Pakistan border.
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- A statement from the U.S. military said there were reporters
at the scene, although none were "seriously injured."
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- Shkin has been a major trouble spot for the U.S.-led
force, with troops coming under frequent and occasionally deadly attack
from suspected militants from Afghanistan's ousted Taliban militia and
the al Qaeda network it sheltered.
-
- Two years after U.S. forces toppled the Taliban, al Qaeda
fighters remain active along the Afghan-Pakistan frontier and the Taliban
is regrouping.
-
- Nearly 400 people, including many rebels, have died in
violence across the country since early August, much of it blamed on the
ousted militia.
-
- Afghan officials have called on Pakistan to do more to
clamp down on Islamic militants on its territory, but Pakistan says it
is doing all it can with the means at its disposal.
-
- The supreme leader of the ousted Taliban, Mullah Mohammad
Omar, urged Afghans to unite against U.S.-led foreign forces on their soil,
a Pakistan-based Afghan news service reported on Sunday.
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- TALIBAN CALL FOR ACTION
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- Omar, in a message ahead of Eid-ul Fitr, marking the
end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, said promises of democracy
and reconstruction made two years ago in Afghanistan were yet to be fulfilled,
Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) said.
-
- "Now the U.S.-backed system is two years old. Where
is the democracy, freedom, human rights and reconstruction?" Taliban
spokesman Hamid Agha quoted Omar as saying in a message delivered to some
Pakistani newspapers.
-
- Few Afghans openly call for a return of the Taliban,
which has regrouped and carried out a series of attacks in recent months
on Western and aid targets. But many say they felt safer under the hardline
Islamic militia.
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- Omar dismissed as a charade next month's planned Loya
Jirga, or grand assembly to finalize a constitution.
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- The Loya Jirga will be followed in June next year by
presidential elections, which Western-backed interim leader Hamid Karzai
is expected to contest.
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