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.

[bildooreilly]

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

[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

[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

[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.

[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.

[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!!!

[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.

[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.

[feelfree1]

SharnCedar,

You are in top form today!

[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'.