Chopper crash kills nine US troops in Afghanistan

April 7, 2005

There were no survivors from a US military CH-47 Chinook helicopter which crashed after hitting bad weather in southeastern Afghanistan, the US military said.

"There were a number of people on board. We believe that there are no survivors," US military spokeswoman Lieutenant Cindy Moore said.

Nine US servicemen were killed in the crash, the US military said.

The CH 47 Chinook helicopter crashed in Ghazni province, 120km southwest of the capital, Kabul, apparently in bad weather, a US spokeswoman said.

Moore said two Chinooks were on a routine patrol when the accident happened.

"One of the Chinooks crashed due to bad weather in Ghazni and the second one landed safely at Bagram," she said. Bagram, near Kabul, is the main US airbase in Afghanistan,

Recovery teams have been sent to the site, she added.

Provincial governor Asadullah Khalid he had seen two bodies after the crash in Dah Khudaidad district, 2.5km southwest of the provincial capital, Ghazni city.

"I went to the crash site. We took two bodies out of the helicopter. There were more than two people in the helicopter," he added.

"They were Americans," he added, without elaborating how he knew their nationality. Khalid added that the crash was due to "bad weather".

US forces have suffered a number of fatal air accidents in rugged Afghanistan since launching a military operation to overthrow the Taliban in late 2001.



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