Kabul, Afghanistan – As many as 40 U.S. soldiers streamed out of a CH-47 Chinook in an air assault on a Taliban position in southern Afghanistan shortly before the helicopter crashed, officials said Thursday. Five Americans, a Briton and a Canadian were killed.
The Chinook’s plunge late Wednesday came on the first day of a new joint NATO-Afghan operation to force Taliban fighters out of the northern part of Helmand province.
NATO said troops who went to the crash site were ambushed by enemy fighters, and the unit called in an airstrike. The U.S.military said “a large number of insurgents” were killed.
Maj. John Thomas, a spokesman for NATO’s International Security Assistance Force, said the Chinook – a heavy-lift twin-rotor helicopter – had just dropped off a full load of troops from the 82nd Airborne before it went down. He said between 30 and 40 troops would likely have been on board.
Thomas said initial indications were that enemy fire may have brought down the Chinook, and a U.S. military official, who insisted on speaking anonymously because the crash was under investigation, said reports suggested the helicopter was hit with a rocket-propelled grenade.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for attacking the aircraft.
But Lt. Col. David Accetta, the top U.S. military spokesman at Bagram Air Base, said enemy fire was only one of several possibilities.
“We will investigate thoroughly,” he said. “There’s no solid evidence we can point to that suggests it was shot down.”
It wasn’t clear how many minutes after the helicopter dropped off the U.S. troops that the crash occurred, Accetta said.
The U.S. soldiers and the Briton killed have not been identified. The Canadian soldier was identified as Master Cpl. Darrell Priede, a combat cameraman.
On Thursday, Afghan and NATO forces battled suspected Taliban in Helmand’s Sangin district. The Defense Ministry said “tens of enemies” were killed or wounded in clashes and airstrikes, but did not provide further detail.
