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British helicopter crash: Five UK troops feared dead as Taliban claims responsibility for Afghanistan attack British helicopter crash: Five UK troops feared dead as Taliban claims responsibility for Afghanistan attack
(about 7 hours later)
A British helicopter has crashed in southern Afghanistan, killing five Nato troops in the bloodiest day this year for foreign forces in the conflict. Five British service personnel are believed to have been killed in Afghanistan after a helicopter crashed near the Pakistan border, in what would be the UK's deadliest day for two years in the long-running war.
The Taliban claimed to have shot down the helicopter in Kandahar but military sources said enemy action was not believed to be involved. The Ministry of Defence has launched an investigation into the incident in the Takhta Pul district of Kandahar province, 30 miles from the border with Pakistan.
The International Security Assistance Force said the troops died in the crash in southern Afghanistan on Saturday morning. Few details about the crash are being disclosed as formal identification of the bodies has yet to take place. However, a senior military source said: "The helicopter was from the UK. There were five people on board. We think we have lost five people."
A statement said: “ISAF is still in the process of reviewing the circumstances to determine more facts. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends.” Ahmad Zia Durrani, a spokesman for the Kandahar police chief's office, said the helicopter was on a "training flight" and that it was unclear why it crashed.
The nationality of the troops has not been officially confirmed but they are all thought to be British. They will not be named until their families have been informed. The helicopter is understood to have been a Lynx Mk9, commonly used by Royal Marines to conduct surveillance and reconnaissance missions using sensors, cameras and recording equipment.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said: “We can confirm that a UK helicopter crashed in southern Afghanistan today. The crash comes as British troops hand over most operations to local security forces in the run-up to their departure from Afghanistan.
“The incident is under investigation and it would be inappropriate to comment further until families have been notified.” The Afghan conflict has cost the British military 453 lives since 2001, when the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair, agreed to send troops to the complex, tribal-dominated country that sheltered Osama bin Laden following the 11 September attacks in America.
The worst air disaster for British forces in Afghanistan was the crash of a Nimrod aircraft in September 2006, when 14 crew members died. A Taliban spokesman claimed in a text message to journalists that the insurgents had shot down the helicopter.
If confirmed, the latest casualties will bring the total number of British military personnel to have died in Afghanistan to 553 since the conflict began in 2001. "Today, the mujahedin hit the foreign forces' helicopter with a rocket, and 12 soldiers on board were killed," their spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi wrote.
Zia Durrani , a spokesman for Kandahar police, said the aircraft went down in the Takhta Pul district, about 31 miles from the Pakistani border, but did not know the cause of the crash. However, the Taliban frequently exaggerate death tolls in their attacks and have falsely claimed responsibility for incidents before.
A Taliban spokesman sent a text message to journalists claiming that the insurgents shot down the helicopter. A fatal accident is also a possibility as helicopters in Afghanistan, used extensively to transport troops, are forced to navigate particularly difficult terrain and swirling gusts of sand.
“Today, the mujahedeen hit the foreign forces' helicopter with a rocket, and 12 soldiers on board were killed,” Qari Yousef Ahmadi said. The Nato-led International Security Assistance Force said: "Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends affected by this tragic event. Isaf [International Security Assistance Force] is still in the process of reviewing the circumstances to determine more facts."
The insurgents frequently exaggerate death tolls in their attacks and have falsely claimed responsibility for other attacks. An MoD spokesman said: "The incident is under investigation and it would be inappropriate to comment further until families have been notified."
Seven troops from the international forces have been killed in Afghanistan this month. The last major helicopter crash in Afghanistan took place in December last year. Seven Americans and four Afghans died after a Black Hawk helicopter went down in the southern province of Zabul.
Nato is preparing to withdraw from Afghanistan at the end of 2014 and transfer responsibility for the ongoing struggle against the Taliban to the Afghan army and police. In the hours after that crash, US officers suggested the crash was due to a mechanical failure, but also that the crew may have come under fire once the helicopter was on the ground. Officials later admitted that Taliban fighters had brought down the aircraft.
Violence has increased in the country as the withdrawal approaches and through the period leading to the elections on 5 April. Preliminary results of the vote were due later on Saturday. The deaths in Afghanistan take the 2014 death toll to 23 – far lower than in previous years. However, violence has been on the increase in recent weeks in the run-up to Saturday's election.
Two Americans killed in a shooting at a hospital in Kabul earlier this week have been named as Jon Gabel, a health clinic administrator and his visiting father, Gary. As British troops prepare to withdraw from Afghanistan after 13 years, the inquest into the long-running conflict has already begun.
The vice chancellor of Kabul University, Mohammad Hadi Hadayati, said that Mr Gabel's wife was wounded in the attack on Thursday, when an Afghan police security guard opened fire as the family entered the grounds of Cure International Hospital. Last week, a new study published by the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi) concluded the decision to escalate the UK's involvement and send thousands of troops to Helmand province in 2006 was a "strategic failure". It also pointed out that opium cultivation in Helmand is higher today than it was before the British arrived.
The family was visiting pediatrician Dr Jerry Umanos, from Chicago, who was also killed. A captain in the Territorial Army recently resigned after a dispute with the Ministry of Defence over his book, which is critical of the conduct of the campaign in Helmand province.
Additional reporting by Associated Press The MoD commissioned the book from Dr Mike Martin, but took exception to parts of his account and threatened him with the Official Secrets Act, saying that his manuscript contained Wikileaks material and "other classified material".
Martin, a Pashtu speaker, spent six years in Helmand speaking to the local population and tribal leaders.
His central argument is that British and US policy-makers and military commanders suffered a "massive intelligence failure" and did not understand the nature of Helmand's tribal society, the Taliban, and the conflict they were engaged in.
Martin said Western leaders scoffed at the local population's basic demands for adequate water supplies and an aggressive attempt to stop poppy production without providing an alternative fuelled the conflict.