☰

Global

U.S. helicopter shot down in Afghanistan


    KABUL (Reuters) - A helicopter belonging to U.S.-led coalition troops was shot down by small-arms fire in Afghanistan on Wednesday and America's top military officer said he was increasingly concerned about the rising violence.

    The U.S. military said there were no serious injuries whenthe UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter was brought down south ofAfghanistan's capital.

    Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs ofStaff, told reporters in Washington the Taliban had become moreeffective.

    "I am, and have been for some time now, deeply troubled bythe increasing violence there," he said. "The Taliban and theirsupporters have, without question, grown more effective andmore aggressive in recent weeks, and as the casualty figuresclearly demonstrate."

    In May, more U.S. and coalition troops were killed inAfghanistan than in Iraq for the first time since those warsbegan, according to the Pentagon. More than 70,000 foreigntroops are now deployed in the country.

    The austere Islamist Taliban have vowed to step up theircampaign of guerrilla, suicide and roadside bomb attacks thisyear to undermine Afghan support for the government in Kabuland pressure foreign troops to pull out.

    "It has been a tough month in Afghanistan, but it's alsobeen a tough month for the Taliban," U.S. President George W.Bush said in Washington. "One reason why there have been moredeaths is because our troops are taking the fight to a toughenemy."

    Pilots landed the stricken Blackhawk helicopter safely andevacuated all personnel before it caught fire in the Kharwardistrict of Logar province, where Taliban militants are active.

    It was the second coalition helicopter to crash in a week.The other incident, in the northeast Kunar province, is underinvestigation but indications are that the helicopter crasheddue to mechanical failure, a U.S. military spokesman said.

    Removed from power in 2001 by U.S.-led troops, theresurgent Taliban said it shot down the helicopter withanti-aircraft rockets and said that all on board were killed.

    The Taliban have brought down a number of aircraft, but sofar they are not thought to have obtained surface-to-airmissiles that could alter the balance of the war dramatically.

    Many historians believe it was the Afghan mujahideen'sacquisitions of such missiles that tipped the war against theSoviet occupation in their favour in the 1980s.

    International troops rely heavily on aircraft to transporttroops and supplies around the rugged mountainous country.

    Elsewhere, a suicide car bomber hit a convoy of NATO forceson Wednesday, wounding two Canadian soldiers, three policemenand two civilians on a road near the southern town of SpinBoldak which lies on the border with Pakistan, said borderpolice commander Abdul Razaq.

    Hours later, the governor of southwestern Nimroz survived asuicide attack but three of his bodyguards were killed.

    Mullen said he expected to see the Taliban use more suicidebombers and improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

    (Additional reporting by Saeed Ali Achakzai in Chaman,Pakistan, and Andrew Gray and Jeremy Pelofsky in Washington;Writing by Sayed Salahuddin; Editing by Alex Richardson andDavid Storey)