US chopper crashes in Afghanistan

Kabul: A US military helicopter crashed while on combat operations in eastern Afghanistan, killing all 10 people on board, the US military said on Saturday.

The CH-47 Chinook crashed late on Friday evening near Asadabad, the capital of the eastern province of Kunar.

The US miliary said the crash was not a result of enemy fire although Taliban insurgents claimed they shot it down with a "new weapon".

"The remains of 10 servicemen were found in the aircraft. There were no survivors," said US military spokeswoman Lieutenant Tamara Lawrence.

She declined to specify the nationality of the dead. US forces work with Afghan troops and soldiers from other countries in a US-led alliance.

The cause of the crash was being investigated but there was "absolutely no indication" it had been brought down by hostile fire, she said.

The US has more than 19,000 troops in Afghanistan, battling insurgents and hunting for their leaders. It is aiming soon to cut its troop numbers to 16,500 as reinforcements from fellow NATO members take over more responsibilities.

US forces last month launched an offensive against Taliban rebels in Kunar, which is on the Pakistani border.

In June last year, an MH-47 - a special forces version of the CH-47 - was shot down during an anti-guerrilla mission in the province killing all 16 US troops on board.

Last September, a US military Chinook crashed in the southern province of Zabul during an anti-militant operation killing all five American crew members.

Eighteen Americans, 15 service personnel and three civilians, were killed in a helicopter crash during a dust storm in the eastern province of Ghazni in April last year.

Taliban claim

A Taliban commander, Mullah Dadullah, speaking by telephone from an undisclosed location, said Taliban fighters had shot down the helicopter on Friday with a "new weapon".

The Taliban are known for making outlandish claims.

The insurgents made a similar claim last month about a cargo aircraft that crashed while landing in the southern province of Helmand.

Five people were killed after a truck drove onto the runway, forcing the pilot into a fatal change of course.

The insurgents also claimed to have shot down a Spanish military helicopter last August. All 17 people on board were killed but Spanish military authorities said they found no sign of an attack.

Taliban insurgents have intensified their campaign against foreign troops and the government in recent months with a wave of roadside and suicide bombings, attacks and assassinations.

On Friday, a roadside bomb killed two Italian peacekeeping soldiers and wounded four near Kabul. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

Italy has some 1,400 troops in Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force. It handed over command of the force to Britain on Thursday.

Twenty foreign soldiers have been killed in combat in Afghanistan this year, 13 of them Americans.

US and Afghan opposition forces overthrew the Taliban in late 2001, after the Taliban refused to hand over Osama bin Laden, architect of the September 11 attacks on the US.