A US military helicopter crashed yesterday during an anti-guerrilla mission in eastern Afghanistan after being hit by ground fire and the fate of 17 US troops aboard was not known.
The twin-rotor Chinook crashed in remote and mountainous Kunar province yesterday afternoon while bringing troops to reinforce soldiers on the ground carrying out an anti-al Qaeda operation, it said.
The aircraft received direct and indirect fire as it was approaching its landing zone and crashed about one or two kilometres away, said US military spokesman Colonel Jim Yonts.
"Whether or not that caused it to crash, we do not know yet," he told a regular news briefing.
Col Yonts said he did not know the fate of those aboard and declined to provide more details on the grounds that fighting was continuing in the area against a "very determined enemy."
"We do have a large force engaging that enemy and at the same time we are trying to care for our servicemen that were on the aircraft," he said.
Kunar Governor Asadullah Wafa said the helicopter was hit by a rocket and a spokesman for the Taliban, Abdul Latif Hakimi, claimed the guerrillas shot down the aircraft in the village of Shorak using "a new type of weapon" he did not describe.
A US military statement said US and Afghan troops had sealed off the crash site to block any enemy movement toward or away from it and US aircraft were flying overhead.