US troops killed in Afghan helicopter crash

Kabul, Afghanistan -

A helicopter crash in southern Afghanistan has killed five American service members, officials said on Tuesday.

Monday night's crash brought the total number of US troops killed that day to seven, making it the deadliest day for US forces so far in 2013. Two US special operations forces were gunned down hours earlier in an insider attack by an Afghan policeman in eastern Afghanistan.

The NATO military coalition said in a statement that “initial reports” showed no enemy activity in the area at the time. The cause of the crash is under investigation, the statement said.

A US official said all five of the dead were American. The official said the helicopter went down outside Kandahar city, the capital of Kandahar province. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the information had not been formally released.

The five dead included everyone aboard the UH-60 Black Hawk, said Maj Adam Wojack, a spokesman for the international military coalition in Afghanistan.

Their deaths make 12 US troops killed so far in 2013 in Afghanistan. There were 297 US service members killed in Afghanistan in 2012, according to an Associated Press tally.

It was the deadliest crash since August, when a US military helicopter crashed during a firefight with insurgents in a remote area of Kandahar. Seven Americans and four Afghans died in that crash.

In March 2012, a helicopter crashed near the Afghan capital, Kabul, killing 12 Turkish soldiers on board and four Afghan civilians on the ground, officials said. And in August 2011, insurgents shot down a Chinook helicopter, killing 30 American troops, mostly elite Navy SEALs, in Wardak province in central Afghanistan. - Sapa-AP