- KABUL (AKI) - Taliban militants
have claimed responsibility for the downing of an American helicopter which
crashed on Sunday in the southern Afghan province of Zabul, to the southwest
of Deh Chopan. All five troops on board were killed. According to the Arab
information website Moheet, Taliban spokesperson Abdul Latif Hakimi says
their men launched several rockets against the aircraft. He also claimed
there were some 20 people on board, all of whom were killed, but US military
officials have rejected all the claims.
-
- US military command says it is still not known what caused
the CH-47 Chinook helicopter to crash. Speaking in a news conference, spokesman
Colonel James Yonts said: "There is no evidence of the involvement
of enemy fire in the helipcopter crash. We do not have any evidence to
back up what the Taliban claim."
-
- The aircraft had been providing support for an operation
on the ground at the time in the Deh Chopan area, a Taliban stronghold.
It had already dropped off troops and was returning to base when it came
down.
-
- There have been several helicopter crashes in Afghanistan
this year. The last was an accident last month in which 17 Spanish troops
died when their helicopter crashed near Herat in western Afghanistan. In
June another Chinook was shot down near the Pakistani border killing all
16 military personnel on board.
-
- More than 1,000 people are thought to have died in militant-linked
violence in Afghanistan this year. Most of them have been insurgents. On
Sunday two suspected Taliban fighters died and two others were injured
in the southern Helmand province when the roadside bomb they were trying
to plant went off.
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- http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level.php?cat=
Terrorism&loid=8.0.211963974&par=0#
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