Two service members from the NATO-led force in Afghanistan were
killed when a helicopter crashed in a volatile eastern area on Sunday,
the coalition said, with the Taliban claiming to have shot the aircraft
down.
“I can confirm a helicopter has crashed in
eastern Afghanistan,” said British Major Tim James, a spokesman for the
NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
“We have no indication of any enemy activity in the area at the time,” he said.
ISAF soon after released a statement which said two service members had been killed in the crash. It gave no other details.
Most of the foreign troops fighting in the east are American, although there are also troops from other countries.
Taliban
spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said by telephone from an undisclosed
location that one of the Islamist group’s fighters had brought the
helicopter down in the Sabari district of eastern Khost province, not
far from the Pakistan border, using a shoulder-fired rocket.
Residents
in Sabari district said they saw a helicopter catch fire, with black
smoke pouring from the aircraft before it crashed in a mountainous area
of the district.
Khost and surrounding provinces
have seen some of the heaviest fighting in Afghanistan in recent months
as the Taliban and other insurgents push back against ISAF gains made in the south over the past 18 months.
Fighting across Afghanistan has spiked since the Taliban launched their spring offensive at the beginning of May.
At
least 230 foreign troops have been killed in Afghanistan so far this
year, according to figures kept by independent monitor
www.icasualties.org and Reuters.
Of those, 57 were
killed in May, the bloodiest month of the year for the NATO-led force.
Another 13 have been killed in the first five days of June. Reuters
