KABUL,
Afghanistan (AP) - Seven American troops and four Afghans died in a
Black Hawk helicopter crash on Thursday in southern Afghanistan, the
NATO military coalition said. The Taliban claimed their fighters shot
down the aircraft.
The crash marked another
deadly day for the U.S. in Afghanistan, less than a week after six
American service members were gunned down, apparently by two members of
the Afghan security forces they were training to take over the fight
against the insurgency as international combat troops prepare to exit
the country by the end of 2014.
The spike in
American deaths and attacks by Afghan allies have stirred fresh doubts
about the prospects for the U.S. plan to leave a capable Afghan
government in place when most troops depart after more than a decade of
war.
Spokesman Brig. Gen Gunter Katz said the
NATO coalition is investigating the cause of Thursday's crash in
Kandahar province. The coalition had no immediate comment on the
insurgents' claim that they shot down the helicopter.
Kandahar
is a traditional Taliban stronghold and the spiritual birthplace of the
hardline Islamist movement that ruled Afghanistan before being ousted
in 2001 by the U.S.-led alliance for sheltering al-Qaida's terrorist
leaders.
Among the dead were seven American
service members, three members of Afghan security forces and one Afghan
civilian interpreter, said Jamie Graybeal, a spokesman for the
coalition. He said there were no survivors of the crash.
He declined to give any details on the mission of the helicopter, a UH-60 Black Hawk.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said insurgent fighters shot down the helicopter in Kandahar province on Thursday morning.
"Nobody survived this," Ahmadi told The Associated Press by phone.
The
helicopter was shot down in Kandahar's Shah Wali Kot district, which
lies in the northern part of the province, said Ahmad Jawed Faisal, a
spokesman for the provincial government said. He declined to give
further details.
The area where the helicopter
went down - a stretch of Kandahar along the border with Uruzgan
province - is seen as a Taliban stronghold and key transit route. The
insurgents regularly attack police checkpoints around the rural villages
of the district and plant bombs in the road to catch passing government
vehicles.
The Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk is a medium-lift helicopter that has served as the U.S. Army's workhorse since the 1980s.
The
U.S.-led NATO force in Afghanistan has relied heavily on utility
helicopters such as the Black Hawk to ferry troops, dignitaries and
supplies around the mountainous terrain, thus avoiding the threat of
ambushes and roadside bombs.
Thursday's crash
is the deadliest since a Turkish helicopter crashed into a house near
the Afghan capital, Kabul, on March 16, killing 12 Turkish soldiers on
board and four Afghan civilians on the ground, officials said.
In
August last year, insurgents shot down a Chinook helicopter, killing 30
American troops, mostly elite Navy SEALs, in Afghanistan's central
Wardak province.
At least 221 American service members have been killed in Afghanistan so far this year.
© 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
