8 U.S. Troops Killed In Afghan Crash

Military: Chinook Helicopter Reported Engine Problems Before Going Down

(AP)  After radioing in an unexplained loss of power and engine failure, a military helicopter crashed early Sunday in southeastern Afghanistan, killing eight U.S. service members. Fourteen survived with injuries.

Officials immediately ruled out enemy fire as a cause of the crash, which left charred wreckage of the twin-rotor Chinook scattered on a dusty, open plain in Zabul province, just 50 yards from the main Kabul-Kandahar highway.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility for any attack on the chopper, which went down under overcast skies in a region where Taliban militants are active.

It was the deadliest single incident this year for the 47,000 U.S.-led coalition and NATO forces in Afghanistan.

The helicopter was carrying 22 U.S. service members when it had a "sudden, unexplained loss of power and control and crashed," U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. David Accetta told The Associated Press, adding the cause would be investigated.

"It was not enemy-fire related," said Col. Tom Collins, spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force. "The pilot was able to radio in that he was having engine problems. We're confident it was not due to enemy action."

Seven U.S. Humvees and three Afghan military vehicles parked around the crash site. About 35 American soldiers and 15 Afghan army soldiers blocked reporters from entering the area. Afghan troops searched every passing vehicle and their passengers.

Zabul provincial Gov. Dilber Jan Arman said it was possible that the helicopter crash was due to bad weather.

The military relies heavily on helicopters for transport and operations because of Afghanistan's forbidding terrain and lack of passable roads. Dust and high altitude of Afghan's mountains take a heavy toll on helicopter engines.

A U.S. military statement said details of the crash or the helicopter's mission would not be released until "completion of recovery operations."

Thousands of U.S. forces are deployed in southeastern Afghanistan, including in Zabul, where they have a base under NATO command. The province has long been a hotbed for militant supporters of the former Taliban regime who have stepped up attacks over the past year.

In May 2006, another U.S. CH-47 Chinook crashed attempting a nighttime landing on a small mountaintop in eastern Kunar province, killing 10 U.S. soldiers.

In 2005, a U.S. helicopter crashed in Kunar, after apparently being hit by a rocket-propelled grenade, killing 16 American troops.

Another crash of a civilian helicopter last year in southeastern Khost province killed up to 16 people, including the wife and two daughters of a U.S. civilian worker.

Meanwhile, NATO reported its forces had shot dead two Afghan civilians whom they mistook as suicide bombers in separate incidents.

A man who "appeared to be chanting and refused to heed warnings to stop" was shot dead as he crossed a road Saturday about seven miles west of Kandahar city, the alliance said in a statement.

Troops thought he was carrying a device with protruding wires. They later found that "he had twine, straps and other materials protruding from his jacket, which resembled wires, but there were no explosives," it said.

NATO-led troops also shot to death another Afghan man on Saturday believed to be a suicide bomber as he ran between vehicles of a military convoy stopped near Kandahar's military airfield.

President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly called on U.S. and NATO-led troops to exercise extreme caution to prevent civilian casualties. Dozens of civilian deaths during operations by foreign troops have undermined his authority among Afghans.

Afghan troops, meanwhile, detained 11 suspected militants Saturday at a checkpoint in Sangin district of the volatile neighboring province, Helmand, said Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi.

The men were traveling in two trucks and were carrying mortar tubes when they were stopped, Azimi said Sunday.

In an operation that ended early Sunday, British and Afghan troops attacked a major Taliban headquarters south of Garmsir in Helmand, destroying three major compounds and a tunnel complex linking them, according to an ISAF statement.

There were no British or Afghan casualties. It was not immediately clear if any Taliban were killed or arrested in the operation.

Southern Afghanistan is the center of the growing Taliban insurgency as well as the world's biggest opium poppy-producing area.

Meanwhile, al Qaeda released a video showing a young man asking for forgiveness from family, friends and teachers before he purportedly carries out a suicide car bombing against foreign troops in Afghanistan.

The video also carries previously released comments from Ayman al-Zawahri, al Qaeda's No. 2 leader, as a train of armed men are shown walking through mountains and while an explosion hits a military vehicle on a turn in a road.

In the video, the man, who does not identify himself, asks his parents to pray for patience when they get word that he has been "martyred."

Last year, militant supporters of the resurgent Taliban stepped up attacks, targeting Afghan government and foreign security forces. According to the U.S. military, there were 139 suicide attacks during 2006, up from 27 in 2005.

[radiob-2009]

Our thoughts and prayers are with the love ones that were on board.

[sharncedar]

When you don't stand up for your rights, you are infringing my rights. When you don't insist the government stop slaughtering young men for its insane sport, you are endangering my children. these eight deaths need to cost the government and the rich so that they take it seriously. You people need to stop acting like animals, like losers, and start respecting our lives, our American lives, as if they were precious and important.

When you refuse to make the government and the leaders be accountable for these eight men, you are saying their lives are trash, you are saying all of our lives are worthless to be disposed by a sick liar thief like Cheney. I don't appreciate it. I'm not worthless, my family is not worthless, we WILL NOT DIE FOR CHENEY or for any other murdering fool.

I don't appreciate Americans acting like ocwards, acting like my brothers were OK to die in flames in some foreign land, like they were trash, like were meaningless.

I insist that you insist that those eight men were as good as eight rich boys skulking and sleazing around Harvard or Yale. If you don't, you are betraying this nation and those dead. Those dead must not die in vain, they will not. we have value. We are human beings. We must insist in any and all ways.

[patriotic9]

SharnCedar
Great post!

[fizzal-2009]

there,s been a few crashes in the past month. What are they putting sand in the fuel?

[lars008-2009]

The pacifist is as surely a traitor to his country and to humanity as is the most brutal wrongdoer. Theodore Roosevelt

[beehive21-2009]

SharnCedar go for a walk mellow out,they did not die in vain ,war is hell.Remember the Twin Towers,more will die ,if your American show it an support your government or leave the USA.What you've said here is a disgrace to the American people in there time of grieve.

[sharncedar]

If you understood that Cheney was a thief, then it would color your opinions in a different fashion. Ask yourself this question - how did a poor representative from Montana, a government employee, become one of the richest men in the world today? Do they pay that much for Congress? Of course not. He had no business experience, never started his own company, he was a government employee at moderate pay for most of his adult life. Where did millions and millions come from?

When you have answered that question, when you follow each betrayal of America, each bribe he took, each time he steered a procurement contract for shoddy supplies or services to one of his shadowy firms (such actions lead to American deaths, perhaps these inferior helicopters were Cheney bribery contracts) then you will have unmasked a monster who holds our dear democracy in contempt.

When you support Cheney, you are also holding this country in contempt. I believe that taking a bribe is a felony, and a betrayal of American values, and any public servant who does so should be convicted and spend time in jail. If you allow guys like Cheney to operate, you lower the standards of our nation, and help turn us into a third world nation. It is not about Democrat or Republican, it is about survival of our nation and our values. No one is above the law; it is time you stop letting Cheney abuse this country and its laws.

[scott4261]

And where's Osama?

[racam-2009]

It's not the matter of enemy fire or not. It is the matter of lives lost. Bring these people home.

[fascistusa]

The American Empire is going as scheduled.

The Elite are getting Richer.

Nothing to see here, Folks. Move along.

[beehive21-2009]

We understand some to sound like a propaganda machine,remember not guilty until proven in a court of law.

[bluestardad]

GET BIN LADEN OR GET OUT!

[grazinggoat]

CBS:'The helicopter crashed in the Shahjoi district of Zabul province, about 50 yards from the main highway between Kabul and Kandahar, and appeared to be destroyed and scattered in several pieces.

U.S. and Afghan military blocked reporters from entering the crash site.'

A thorough reading of the story induces a question. IS IT ANOTHER LIE FROM THE MILITARY or the POLITICIANS?

Is it just another engine failure or is it the same shoulder-held Stinger missiles the insurgents were successfully using against the Soviet helicopters, that caused the downing of this Military helicopter?

[lars008-2009]

are you fascist nazi islamic muslims loving year of the pig..... lol.... oik oik haji.....
hahahahahahahahahahaha

[markster6]

Some people believe the fallacy that if we get Bin Laden, then the problem of Al Queda disappears. Bin Laden is or was the head on a snake... a snake that regenerates a new head when it is cut off, my point being that Bin Laden doesn't matter as much as you might think. If the US leaves Afghanistan, there is no doubt that the Taliban would retake the country. As they did before, the Taliban would then allow Al Queda to re-establish a base of operations. Don't let your feelings about the Iraq conflict cloud your thinking about Afghanistan. As we speak, the Taliban are training the next generation of jihadists in the madrassas of Pakistan and tribal regions. Coercing Pakistan into stopping this brainwashing of their youth should be an American and international objective.

[bildooreilly]

The Taliban are better fighters than the iraqis, many were trained by our CIA in the past. They probably took it down, just like they did how many hundred or thousand soviet copters back in the days when Ronald Reagan was calling them heroic freedom fighters and dedicating space shuttle flights to them...

[beehive21-2009]

When will the poppy fields be burnt ?

[grazinggoat]

bildooreilly
You seem to be a living memory. Ronald Reagan called them Freedom Fighters. But he was just lying at the face of Americans. He was just an actor saying what he was told to say. Real deciders have used the freedom fighters who were convincingly figthing for their country, to kick the Soviet army out of Afghanistan.

Resistance is matter of fact a sacred duty for those fighters. Without real policy to consider the insurgents (with or without OBL) as a real resistance and talk to them, we are set to have more and more of those 'engine-related accidents'.

[feelfree1]

SharnCedar,

You are in top form today!

[feelfree1]

grazinggoat,

Re: "Is it just another engine failure or is it the same shoulder-held Stinger missiles the insurgents were successfully using against the Soviet helicopters, that caused the downing of this Military helicopter?"

That thought had crossed my mind as well.

[d3125]

hi,
I wonder why all american helicopters come down in Taliban controlled areas. It is a part of psychological war, to lie when you suffer failures and american millitary has adapted this rule. Americans should have taken a lesson from British and Russian who had humiliated defeat and left afghanistan. I am pretty sure americans will fail, because I see them not more powerful than the Soviets and former great britain.

[sclaires]

As I sit here at my computer reading the story and all the comments, it makes me wonder about the patriotism of some people in our great country. I don't believe that the United States should be the world's policeman but that is what "the powers that be" in Washington think.

My father, bless his soul, was in the army for 20 years and fought in Europe during WWII. He came away from that conflict with scars but was able to overcome them. My brother, who is now 54, is in the National Guard and his unit is being deployed to Afghanistan shortly. I worry about him and his unit since I know, from reading the news, how bad the fighting is there. I don't let him know how much I worry about him since I don't want to upset him. I just keep it to myself and write him cheerful letters about what is going on. He doesn't need unpleasant items to worry about.

I, too, wonder if the helicopter that crashed was caused by a Stinger missile, shoddy maintenance, poor fuel, or something else. The military isn't going to give the complete truth since it would make them look bad. But, when a piece of machinery loses power, there has to be a reason and from the way I see it, it has to be either shoddy maintenance or poor fuel. A helicopter doesn't come down for no reason at all!!!

[sclaires]

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21247051-2,00.html#
This is a story from Australia about a visit by Cheney coming up this week. The headlines say that "Cheney unlikely to seek troops". Want to bet that whoever wrote the headline is wrong! More then likely he will want more troops both in Iraq and Afghanistan.

[d3125]

Hi,
There is no patroitism in invading other countries for personal reasons.However, those american soldiers who are killed in afghanistan, contributes some money to Bush and Chenny. So they dont die for the wrong cause. From one hand they make oil companies and american war mongers get richer, which that indirectly contributes to american economy.

[lars008-2009]

Lt. Cmdr. Charles E. Madison: You American haters bore me to tears, Ms. Barham. I've dealt with Europeans all my life. I know all about us parvenus from the States who come over here and race around your old Cathedral towns with our cameras and Coca-cola bottles... Brawl in your pubs, paw at your women, and act like we own the world. We over-tip, we talk too loud, we think we can buy anything with a Hershey bar. I've had Germans and Italians tell me how politically ingenuous we are, and perhaps so. But we haven't managed a Hitler or a Mussolini yet. I've had Frenchmen call me a savage because I only took half an hour for lunch. Hell, Ms. Barham, the only reason the French take two hours for lunch is because the service in their restaurants is lousy. The most tedious lot are you British. We crass Americans didn't introduce war into your little island. This war, Ms. Barham to which we Americans are so insensitive, is the result of 2,000 years of European greed, barbarism, superstition, and stupidity. Don't blame it on our Coca-cola bottles. Europe was a growing brothel long before we came to town.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057840/quotes

[bildooreilly]

Those guys we teamed up with to "win" this war the Northern Alliance are the guys who grow the poppys, I don't think it would go over to well with them if we cut off their international drug trade.


-------------------

When will the poppy fields be burnt ?
Posted by beehive21 at 03:48 PM : Feb 18, 2007

[bildooreilly]

Afghan economy is building... one heroin addict at a time.