Afghanistan: 14 Americans killed in two Afghan helicopter crashes

[Naveed Yaseen]

KABUL (October 27 2009): Helicopter crashes killed 14 Americans on Monday, including three DEA agents after a firefight with suspected Taliban drug traffickers. It was the deadliest day for the US in Afghanistan in more than four years. The casualties also marked the Drug Enforcement Administration's first deaths in Afghanistan since it began operations here in 2005.

Afghanistan is the world's largest producer of opium the raw ingredient in heroin and the illicit drug trade is a major source of funding for insurgent groups. In the deadliest crash, a helicopter went down in the west of the country after leaving the scene of a firefight, killing 10 Americans seven troops and the three DEA agents. Eleven American troops, one US civilian and 14 Afghans were also injured.

In a separate incident, two US Marine helicopters one UH-1 and an AH-1 Cobra collided in flight before sunrise over the southern province of Helmand, killing four American troops and wounding two more, Marine spokesman Major Bill Pelletier said. It was the heaviest single-day loss of life since June 28, 2005, when 19 US troops died, including 16 on an MH-47 Chinook helicopter that was shot down by insurgents.

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 claimed Taliban fighters shot down a helicopter in north-west Badghis province's Darabam district. It was impossible to verify the claim and unclear if he was referring to the same incident.

Military spokeswoman Elizabeth Mathias said hostile fire was unlikely because the troops were not receiving fire when the helicopter took off. Nato said the helicopter was returning from a joint operation that targeted insurgents involved in ``narcotics trafficking in western Afghanistan.' ``During the operation, insurgent forces engaged the joint force and more than a dozen enemy fighters were killed in the ensuing firefight,' a Nato statement said.

US forces also reported the death of two other American service members 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 47 the number of US service members who have been killed in October.

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 American forces in the eight-year war.

The latest deaths came as President Barack Obama prepared to meet his national security team for a sixth full-scale conference on the future of the troubled war. Obama is debating whether to send tens of thousands more troops to the country, while the Afghan government is rushing to hold a November 7 runoff election between President Hamid Karzai and challenger Abdullah Abdullah after it was determined that the August election depended on fraudulent votes.

The administration is hoping the runoff will produce a legitimate government. In Washington, Obama was to meet with his national security team Monday in the White House Situation Room. Abdullah on Monday called for election commission chairman Azizullah Lodin to be replaced within five days, saying he has ``no credibility.'

Lodin has denied accusations he is biased in favour of Karzai, and the election commission's spokesman has already said Lodin cannot be replaced by either side. Abdullah made the demand in a news conference during which he spelled out what he said were ``minimum conditions' for holding a fair second round of voting, including the firing of any workers implicated in fraud and the suspension of several ministers he said had campaigned for Karzai in the first round before the official campaigning period began. Abdullah did not say what would happen if his demands were not met. ``I reserve my reaction if we are faced with that unfortunate situation,' he said.

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