6 ISAF troops perish in chopper crash

KABUL, the alliance said on Friday.

With the cause of the crash under investigation, initial reporting indicated there was no enemy activity in the area at the time of the crash, the NATO-led force said.

In line with its policy, the multinational force deferred casualty identification procedures to the relevant national authorities.

“More information will be released as appropriate,” said a brief statement from ISAF, which gave no further details of the incident.

As usual, the Taliban claimed shooting down the chopper in the Musa Qala district of Helmand province. All those on board were killed, the group said, without giving casualty figures.

On January 17, three private American contractors working for the Pentagon were killed in a helicopter crash in the Nad Ali district of the same province.

The chopper that went down in the Shawal area caught fire while attempting an emergency landing, a local police officer said.

AAR Airlift, the contractors’ company, said there were no other passengers on the helicopter, which Taliban fighters claimed shooting down. But the firm said the cause was not yet known.

With the latest fatalities, the number of international soldiers killed in Afghanistan during the current has increased to 23, 14 of them Americans. In 2011, the bloodiest for foreign troops since 2001, 556 NATO-led troops were killed in the country.

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