Six US troops were killed in a helicopter crash in southern Afghanistan, officials said on Friday, indicating the incident was not believed to be the result of enemy fire, as four French soldiers were shot dead and 16 were wounded by a member of the Afghan army in eastern Afghanistan.
The helicopter, a CH-53 Sea Stallion, went down in the volatile Helmand province, according to one US official who said: “Initial indications are that this was not hostile fire.” The dead were members of the US military, another US official told AFP.
In a brief statement, NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said the cause of the crash was under investigation. “However, initial reporting indicates there was no enemy activity in the area at the time of the crash,” it said. The helicopter came down in the Musa Qala district of Helmand province at around 10pm on Thursday “due to technical failure”, the provincial Afghan army corps commander Sayed Mulook told AFP.
Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, a spokesman for the Taliban militia, claimed the insurgents had shot down the helicopter. Mulook rejected the claim. The Sea Stallion is a heavy transport aircraft capable of carrying about 40 people. The US officials did not say whether anyone else was on board, other than the six victims. An ISAF spokesman told AFP in Kabul that the crash occurred late on Thursday. He stressed that “there was no enemy around”, but could not give further information such as the terrain at the crash site or the weather. Meanwhile, four French soldiers were shot dead and 16 were wounded by a member of the Afghan army in eastern Afghanistan on Friday, a NATO spokesman and Afghan officials said. “A man wearing Afghan army uniform opened fire on French nationals killing four and injuring 16 others this morning in Tagab district of Kapisa province,” a security official told AFP on condition of anonymity. A spokesman for NATO forces said four NATO troops were killed and the shooter had been arrested, but did not give the nationality of the troops. “Four ISAF service members were killed today in eastern Afghanistan by a member of the Afghan National Army,” the US-led force said in a statement. French troops had surrounded their base in Kapisa and were not allowing any Afghan soldiers to approach, a security source told AFP. France suspended all training and joint operations in Afghanistan after the incident and President Nicolas Sarkozy said he was mulling an early withdrawal. “The French army is alongside its allies but we cannot accept that a single one of our soldiers be wounded or killed by our allies, it’s unacceptable,” Sarkozy said, dispatching Defence Minister Gerard Longuet to Afghanistan.
Nice.
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