7 die in NATO copter crash in Afghanistan

KABUL, May 31 Kyodo

Seven NATO soldiers were killed late Wednesday when their helicopter, possibly shot down by Taliban militants, crashed in southern Afghanistan, NATO forces said Thursday.

The CH-47 Chinook helicopter went down in the Kajaki area of Helmand Province around 9 p.m., killing all five crewmen and their two military passengers, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said in a statement.

''The cause of the crash is being determined by military officials.'' it said.

The military has not released the nationalities of the victims, but media reports suggested they include five Americans, one Briton and a Canadian.

A purported Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, claimed in a statement posted on a website that militants shot down the helicopter in Helmand with a ''new weapon.''

He said up to 60 soldiers were killed in the crash and called it a ''great success'' in the Taliban's new operation called Ambush, which was launched last week.

NATO said troops going to the crash scene were ambushed by militants. ''Under continued fire, the responding patrol called for an air strike to eliminate the enemy threat,'' it said, noting that one civilian was injured by gunfire.

A Chinook crashed in February in the southern province of Zabul, killing eight U.S. personnel. Officials at the time ruled out enemy fire as the cause.

In May 2006, another Chinook crashed attempting a nighttime landing on a small mountaintop in the eastern province of Kunar, 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 Americans.

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