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14 UK-Servicemembers Die in Afghan Plane Crash
NATO Plane Crash in Afghanistan Kills 14
Saturday, September 2, 2006 3:00 PM EDT
The Associated Press
By NOOR KHAN
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) — A British patrol plane crashed Saturday, killing 14 servicemen in the worst loss of life for the NATO-led security force since it took on the mission of taming insurgents in Afghanistan's volatile south a month ago.
A purported spokesman for the ousted Taliban movement claimed guerrillas shot the plane down with a Stinger missile, but British Defense Secretary Des Browne said the loss appeared to be "a terrible accident." The alliance said the plane's crew had reported a technical problem.
The crash came as Afghan and foreign troops carried out a big operation near Kandahar, a former Taliban stronghold in a region that has seen a surge of violence. Afghan officials said 13 policemen, 13 insurgents and a civilian had died in clashes across the south since Friday.
The British Defense Ministry said the crashed plane was a Nimrod MR2, a long-range aircraft that can carry up to 25 people and a crew of 13 for reconnaissance and communications missions. The dead included 12 Royal Air Force personnel, a Royal Marine and an army soldier.
Abdul Manan, a witness in Chalaghor, about 12 miles west of Kandahar city, said the plane crashed about 100 yards from his house and pieces of wreckage landed nearby. He reported seeing a fire at the back of the plane before it hit with an explosion that "shook the whole village."
Afghan and NATO troops are conducting a major offensive in Panjwayi district, where Chalaghor village is, but Manan said the fighting was six miles from the village. Earlier Saturday, authorities had ordered all traffic off roads in the district, warning that any vehicle "will be targeted" in case it was carrying Taliban militants.
Manan said troops on helicopters landed around the burning plane wreckage and kept onlookers away. He said he could see American soldiers picking up body parts.
Shortly after the crash, a purported spokesman for the Taliban, Abdul Khaliq, claimed responsibility for the crash, but it was impossible to independently verify the claim. "We used a Stinger missile to shoot down the aircraft," he said in a phone call to The Associated Press.
Maj. Scott Lundy, a spokesman for the NATO-led force that took command of security in southern Afghanistan from a U.S.-led coalition Aug. 1, said that "there was no indication of an enemy attack."
In London, Browne said that "at this stage all the indications are that this was a terrible accident and not the result of hostile action." A statement from the NATO-led force said the plane went down after "having declared a technical problem with the aircraft."
Before Saturday, 22 British soldiers had died in the country since November 2001, 17 of them in March when the NATO force moved into Helmand, a southern province neighboring Kandahar that is the hub of Afghanistan's world-leading opium-growing industry. Britain has nearly 4,000 soldiers in Helmand.
The south is the heartland of the former Taliban regime, which was ousted by a U.S.-led invasion following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the U.S. and has stepped up attacks this year. Some 1,600 people, mostly militants, have died in violence the past four months, according to an AP count.
Officials reported a flurry of violence Friday and Saturday across the south.
In the deadliest incident, insurgents attacked a police checkpoint Friday in Helmand's Grieshk district, killing five officers and wounding seven, said Ghulam Muhiddin, the Helmand governor's spokesman. Police killed three Taliban and wounded two, he said.
Muhiddin said the insurgents also took away four captured officers and hundreds of police were hunting for them Saturday.
In southwestern Farah province Saturday, a Taliban ambush killed four policemen and the wife of one of the dead officers, provincial police chief Syed Agha Saqib said. The woman's 2-year-old son survived unhurt.
Four Afghan police officers and 10 suspected Taliban members were reported killed in three other clashes, in southwestern Nimroz province and southern Zabul province.
There have been a string of aircraft crashes recently in Afghanistan, mostly of military helicopters.
On July 26, a civilian helicopter went down in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan, killing as many as 16 people, including the wife and two daughters of a U.S. civilian worker. Another purported Taliban spokesman claimed the rebels shot down the chopper, but a military official said it probably crashed by accident in bad weather.
Saturday, September 2, 2006 3:00 PM EDT
The Associated Press
By NOOR KHAN
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) — A British patrol plane crashed Saturday, killing 14 servicemen in the worst loss of life for the NATO-led security force since it took on the mission of taming insurgents in Afghanistan's volatile south a month ago.
A purported spokesman for the ousted Taliban movement claimed guerrillas shot the plane down with a Stinger missile, but British Defense Secretary Des Browne said the loss appeared to be "a terrible accident." The alliance said the plane's crew had reported a technical problem.
The crash came as Afghan and foreign troops carried out a big operation near Kandahar, a former Taliban stronghold in a region that has seen a surge of violence. Afghan officials said 13 policemen, 13 insurgents and a civilian had died in clashes across the south since Friday.
The British Defense Ministry said the crashed plane was a Nimrod MR2, a long-range aircraft that can carry up to 25 people and a crew of 13 for reconnaissance and communications missions. The dead included 12 Royal Air Force personnel, a Royal Marine and an army soldier.
Abdul Manan, a witness in Chalaghor, about 12 miles west of Kandahar city, said the plane crashed about 100 yards from his house and pieces of wreckage landed nearby. He reported seeing a fire at the back of the plane before it hit with an explosion that "shook the whole village."
Afghan and NATO troops are conducting a major offensive in Panjwayi district, where Chalaghor village is, but Manan said the fighting was six miles from the village. Earlier Saturday, authorities had ordered all traffic off roads in the district, warning that any vehicle "will be targeted" in case it was carrying Taliban militants.
Manan said troops on helicopters landed around the burning plane wreckage and kept onlookers away. He said he could see American soldiers picking up body parts.
Shortly after the crash, a purported spokesman for the Taliban, Abdul Khaliq, claimed responsibility for the crash, but it was impossible to independently verify the claim. "We used a Stinger missile to shoot down the aircraft," he said in a phone call to The Associated Press.
Maj. Scott Lundy, a spokesman for the NATO-led force that took command of security in southern Afghanistan from a U.S.-led coalition Aug. 1, said that "there was no indication of an enemy attack."
In London, Browne said that "at this stage all the indications are that this was a terrible accident and not the result of hostile action." A statement from the NATO-led force said the plane went down after "having declared a technical problem with the aircraft."
Before Saturday, 22 British soldiers had died in the country since November 2001, 17 of them in March when the NATO force moved into Helmand, a southern province neighboring Kandahar that is the hub of Afghanistan's world-leading opium-growing industry. Britain has nearly 4,000 soldiers in Helmand.
The south is the heartland of the former Taliban regime, which was ousted by a U.S.-led invasion following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the U.S. and has stepped up attacks this year. Some 1,600 people, mostly militants, have died in violence the past four months, according to an AP count.
Officials reported a flurry of violence Friday and Saturday across the south.
In the deadliest incident, insurgents attacked a police checkpoint Friday in Helmand's Grieshk district, killing five officers and wounding seven, said Ghulam Muhiddin, the Helmand governor's spokesman. Police killed three Taliban and wounded two, he said.
Muhiddin said the insurgents also took away four captured officers and hundreds of police were hunting for them Saturday.
In southwestern Farah province Saturday, a Taliban ambush killed four policemen and the wife of one of the dead officers, provincial police chief Syed Agha Saqib said. The woman's 2-year-old son survived unhurt.
Four Afghan police officers and 10 suspected Taliban members were reported killed in three other clashes, in southwestern Nimroz province and southern Zabul province.
There have been a string of aircraft crashes recently in Afghanistan, mostly of military helicopters.
On July 26, a civilian helicopter went down in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan, killing as many as 16 people, including the wife and two daughters of a U.S. civilian worker. Another purported Taliban spokesman claimed the rebels shot down the chopper, but a military official said it probably crashed by accident in bad weather.
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