Helicopter crash at Afghan base kills 15

A civilian helicopter crashed at southern Afghanistan's largest NATO base Sunday, military officials said. Russia's air transportation agency reported 15 people died.NATO and U.S. officials did not immediately confirm the death toll. Russian news agencies Interfax and RIA Novosti reported that the Russian-made Mi-8 helicopter crashed on takeoff.Interfax said there were 20 people aboard and that the survivors included the three crew members and two passengers. Both agencies cited an unidentified source in the Federal Air Transport Agency.U.S. military spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Christine Sidenstricker said there was no indication that insurgent fire caused the crash.The Mi-8 helicopter can seat up to 24 people, said Capt. Glen Parent, a spokesman for the NATO-led force in Kandahar.In a second helicopter incident in the country's east, a U.S. military chopper made an emergency landing in Kunar province, the military said in a statement. Sidenstricker said no enemy fire was reported near the helicopter.Personnel on the helicopter were taken to a medical facility for treatment, but no other details were released.The two incidents follow the downing of an Mi-6 transport helicopter in southern Afghanistan last week by Taliban militants. Six Ukrainian civilians and an Afghan child on the ground died in the crash.Earlier in July, two Canadian soldiers and one British trooper were killed in a helicopter crash in Zabul province. Officials said that crash did not appear to be a result of hostile fire.In other violence, the Afghan Defense Ministry said 35 militants were killed during a joint operation by Afghan and coalition troops in the Shah Walk Kot district of Kandahar province early Saturday. The mission included the use of airstrikes, it said in a statement.A spokesman for the ministry, Zahir Murad, said he did not know how defense officials knew that 35 militants had been killed, and there was no way to independently verify the number.Also in the east, a suicide bomber attacked the Afghan-Pakistan border crossing at Torkham, killing a border police officer and a civilian, said Gen. Ayub Salangi, the provincial police chief of Nangarhar.

Posted in: Afghanistan,Fighting Al Qaeda and Taliban,Helicopter