A series of helicopter crashes killed 14 Americans in insurgent-wracked Afghanistan yesterday, the US military said.
It was one of the deadliest days of the war for US troops.
In the first crash, a chopper went down in the west of the country after leaving the scene of a firefight with insurgents, killing 10 Americans — seven troops and three civilians working for the government. Eleven US troops, one US civilian and 14 Afghans were also injured.
PHOTO: EPA
In a separate incident in the south, two other US choppers collided while in flight, killing four American troops and wounding two more, the military said.
US authorities have ruled out hostile fire in the collision but have not given a cause for the other fatal crash in the west.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yusuf Ahmedi said that Taliban fighters shot down a helicopter in northwest Badghis Province’s Darabam district. It was impossible to verify the claim and unclear if he was referring to the same incident.
US forces also reported the death of two other American troops a day earlier: one in a bomb attack in the east and another who died of wounds sustained in an insurgent attack in the same region.
The deaths bring to at least 46 the number of US troops who have been killed this month.
Earlier this month, insurgents killed eight US troops in an attack on a pair of isolated US outposts in the eastern village of Kamdesh near the Pakistan border. That was the heaviest US loss of life in a single battle since July last year, when nine US soldiers were killed in a raid on an outpost in Wanat in the same province.
“These separate tragedies today underscore the risks our forces and our partners face every day,” Colonel Wayne Shanks, a spokesman for the NATO-led coalition, said yesterday. “Each and every death is a tremendous loss for the family and friends of each service member and civilian. Our grief is compounded when we have such a significant loss on one day.”
This has been the deadliest year for international and US forces since the 2001 invasion to oust the Taliban. Fighting spiked around the presidential vote in August, and 51 US soldiers died that month — the deadliest for US forces in the eight-year war.
The deaths come as US officials debate whether to send tens of thousands more troops to the country and the Afghan government scrambles to organize a Nov. 7 runoff election between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his top challenger from an August vote that was sullied by massive ballot-rigging. US President Barack Obama’s administration is hoping the runoff will produce a legitimate government. Another flawed election would cast doubt on the wisdom of sending more troops to support a weak government tainted by fraud.
Military spokeswoman Elizabeth Mathias said coalition forces had launched an operation to recover the wreckage of the helicopter that was downed in the west.
She said the aircraft was leaving the site of a joint operation with Afghan forces when it went down.
The joint force had “searched a suspected compound believed to harbor insurgents conducting activities related to narcotics trafficking in western Afghanistan,” NATO said in a statement. “During the operation, insurgent forces engaged the joint force and more than a dozen enemy fighters were killed in the ensuing firefight.”
On Sunday, Karzai and his rival, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, both ruled out a power-sharing deal before the runoff, saying the second round of balloting must be held as planned to bolster democracy in this war-ravaged country.
Meanwhile, security forces in Kabul fired automatic rifles into the air for a second day yesterday to contain hundreds of stone-throwing university students angered over the alleged desecration of the Koran by US troops during an operation two weeks ago in Wardak Province. Firetrucks were also brought in to push back protesters with water cannons. Police said several officers were injured in the mayhem.
US and Afghan authorities have denied any such desecration and insist that the Taliban are spreading the rumor to stir up public anger. The rumor sparked similar protests in Wardak and Khost provinces.
On Sunday, the students in the capital burned Obama in effigy and chanted slogans such as “down with Americans, down with Israel” as they marched from Kabul University to the parliament building, where riot police turned them back.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday declared martial law in an unannounced late night address broadcast live on YTN television. Yoon said he had no choice but to resort to such a measure in order to safeguard free and constitutional order, saying opposition parties have taken hostage of the parliamentary process to throw the country into a crisis. "I declare martial law to protect the free Republic of Korea from the threat of North Korean communist forces, to eradicate the despicable pro-North Korean anti-state forces that are plundering the freedom and happiness of our people, and to protect the free
CHAGOS ISLANDS: Recently elected Mauritian Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam told lawmakers that the contents of negotiations are ‘unknown’ to the government Mauritius’ new prime minister ordered an independent review of a deal with the UK involving a strategically important US-UK military base in the Indian Ocean, placing the agreement under fresh scrutiny. Under a pact signed last month, the UK ceded sovereignty of the Chagos archipelago to Mauritius, while retaining control of Diego Garcia — the island where the base is situated. The deal was signed by then-Mauritian prime minister Pravind Jugnauth and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Oct. 3 — a month before elections in Mauritius in which Navin Ramgoolam became premier. “I have asked for an independent review of the
France on Friday showed off to the world the gleaming restored interior of Notre-Dame cathedral, a week before the 850-year-old medieval edifice reopens following painstaking restoration after the devastating 2019 fire. French President Emmanuel Macron conducted an inspection of the restoration, broadcast live on television, saying workers had done the “impossible” by healing a “national wound” after the fire on April 19, 2019. While every effort has been made to remain faithful to the original look of the cathedral, an international team of designers and architects have created a luminous space that has an immediate impact on the visitor. The floor shimmers and
‘VIOLATIONS OF DISCIPLINE’: Miao Hua has come up through the political department in the military and he was already fairly senior before Xi Jinping came to power in 2012 A member of China’s powerful Central Military Commission has been suspended and put under investigation, the Chinese Ministry of National Defense said on Thursday. Miao Hua (苗華) was director of the political work department on the commission, which oversees the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the world’s largest standing military. He was one of five members of the commission in addition to its leader, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Ministry spokesman Colonel Wu Qian (吳謙) said Miao is under investigation for “serious violations of discipline,” which usually alludes to corruption. It is the third recent major shakeup for China’s defense establishment. China in June
RSS