NATO investigates helicopter crash in Afghanistan

Kabul, Aug 7: The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) officials in Afghanistan said that they have started investigation to the helicopter crash that killed 31 United States Special Force soldiers and 7 Afghan citizens.

Though the Pentagon and the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan refused to comment on reports about the helicopter was shot down by Taliban militants, they said cause of the crash was being investigated.

The Chinook helicopter was shot down by a Taliban rocket on Friday, Aug 5 night while raiding militant camps in Syedabad in central Maidan Wardak province in Afghanistan. It was the biggest single incident for foreign troops in 10 years of war.

"No words describe the sorrow we feel in the wake of this tragic loss. All of those killed in this operation were true heroes who had already given so much in the defense of freedom," said General John Allen, ISAF commander.

The attack came few days after US president Barack Obama announced the plan to withdraw foreign forces from Afghan by the end of 2014. With this attack, the number of foreign soldiers killed in Afghanistan in 2011 alone rose to 375.

OneIndia News