Helicopter crash kills "at least 6" in Afghanistan

By Ismail Sameem

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A helicopter supplying the NATO-led force in southern Afghanistan, scene of a massive operation by U.S. Marines, crashed on Tuesday killing at least six foreigners, alliance officials said.

The Taliban, leading the insurgency against foreign troops and the Afghan government, said it had shot down a Chinook helicopter in southern Helmand province.

The six included civilian contractors and the helicopter was supplying non-military goods to NATO-led force, a spokesman for the force in Kabul said. He did not give details about the identity of those killed or type of the helicopter.

An Afghan official who witnessed the crash told Reuters the helicopter was being used by foreign forces. Spokesmen for the British and U.S. forces said it was a civilian aircraft.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Navy, Lieutenant-Commander Christine Sidenstricker, said there had been some casualties in the crash in the Sangin district of Helmand.

"We know that there were casualties, but we are still receiving information from the scene and at this time do not have any additional details about them," she told Reuters.

Around 4,000 U.S. Marines and hundreds of NATO and Afghan forces are taking part in an offensive in various parts of Helmand against the Taliban, the biggest by foreign troops since they ousted the Islamist group in 2001.

The operation comes ahead of next month's presidential election, which is crucial both for Kabul and for a U.S. administration that has identified Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan as its top foreign policy priority.

Since the launch of the assault in Helmand early this month, the Taliban have stepped up their raids in other parts of Afghanistan against foreign troops and the government, making July the bloodiest month for foreign troops for nearly a year.

An Italian soldier was killed and three wounded when their convoy was hit by a roadside bomb near the western Farah province, the Italian military said.

Polish troops under NATO's command came under a Taliban attack on Tuesday in Ghazni province which lies to the southwest of Kabul, witnesses and an official said. They said a helicopter went to the site of the attack to evacuate the casualties.

NATO said it was checking the Ghazni report.

On Monday, two U.S. soldiers from the NATO-led force were killed in Helmand, a spokesman for the U.S. military said.

Prior to that, at least 15 foreign servicemen had been killed since the start of the assault in Helmand, part of the main bastion for Taliban guerrillas and the main drug producing region of Afghanistan, the world's top heroin supplier.

And there have been numerous casualties among U.S. forces in other parts of Afghanistan. Last week, three foreign servicemen were killed when a NATO helicopter crashed in southern Zabul province.