WASHINGTON – Six U.S. service members were killed Tuesday when a helicopter with engine trouble crashed in southern Afghanistan, U.S. and NATO officials said.
One person on board the aircraft was injured and survived, two U.S. defence officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record.
A statement issued by the NATO International military coalition said the crash was under investigation and that there was no insurgent activity in the area. In Washington an official said they were specifically investigating the cause of “the engine failure.”
The deputy governor of southern Zabul province, Mohammad Jan Rasoolyar, said a NATO helicopter crashed in the remote district of Shajau and U.S. officials later confirmed that Zabul was the location of the U.S. crash.
This year, 109 members of the U.S. military have died in Afghanistan, out of a total of 139 members of the coalition.
The death toll has dropped significantly since the coalition handed over responsibility for security to Afghan forces last summer and coalition troops are now training and assisting.
By comparison, 394 foreign troops died last year, including 297 Americans.
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Associated Press writers Patrick Quinn in Kabul and Mirwais Khan in Kandahar contributed to this report.
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