All 16 aboard helicopter killed in Afghanistan

KABUL, July 27: All 16 people aboard a helicopter, including several foreigners, were killed when it crashed in rugged mountain terrain in southeastern Afghanistan, officials said today.

The cause of yesterday's crash was not immediately known, but it took place in an area where insurgents are active and at a time of increased violence across the country ahead of NATO's groundbreaking mission in the dangerous south.

''There are no survivors,'' said Colonel Tom Collins, a spokesman for US-led coalition forces. ''Twelve of the 16 have been recovered. The terrain in this area is extremely difficult and we are now working hard to recover the remaining passengers.'' The Dutch defence ministry said two of its troops were aboard the helicopter, a Russian-made transporter.

''There is no indication yet on what caused the crash,'' Collins told a news conference.

Afghanistan's interior ministry said the helicopter belonged to a Western company and that among those were killed were three foreign women.

A Taliban spokesman said militants had shot down the helicopter. Insurgents have in the past claimed responsibility for shooting down aircraft, but their reports have often proved unfounded.

More than a dozen helicopters have crashed in Afghanistan since US-led drove the Taliban from power in 2001. In the worst crash, 17 Spanish troops with the NATO-led peacekeeping operation were killed last year.

NATO'S BIG CHALLENGE NATO moved a step closer to undertaking its biggest mission in its more than 50-year history when the alliance on Tuesday approved in Brussels plans to take over security responsibility in the Afghan south by the end of the month.

The plan must now win consent of the 11 other non-NATO members of the coalition, seen as a formality, before it is put into action on July 31.

Until now, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) force has been operating in the capital, Kabul, and the safer north and west of the country. US troops have borne the brunt of fighting the insurgency in the south and east.

''For NATO it is the most challenging mission since the end of the Cold War,'' a civilian spokesman for the alliance, Mark Laity, told reporters.

More than 1,700 people have been killed since the start of the year in attacks, mainly in the south, by Taliban guerrillas and US-led coalition operations.

''The security in the south is obviously very difficult at present,'' said Laity. ''Some areas are regarded by the Taliban as their heartland. These are areas they won't give up easily without a fight.''

REUTERS