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(Sept. 21) -- Nine U.S. service members were killed today in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan, making 2010 the deadliest year for NATO forces since the war began.
No enemy fire was reported, and NATO said it's investigating the cause of the crash. Most chopper crashes in Afghanistan have been caused by mechanical problems.
The international force announced the incident on its website without giving the victims' nationalities. It said the crash took place in the country's south, where mostly American and British troops are stationed. London's Daily Telegraph quoted unnamed military sources as saying the dead were not British. CNN and NBC are both quoting unnamed officials as saying they were Americans.
The military typically holds off on publicly identifying casualties until the soldiers' families are notified.
Three other passengers -- another NATO soldier, an Afghan soldier and an American civilian -- were injured in the crash and taken to a NATO hospital for treatment, the statement said.
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Today's casualties make 2010 the deadliest year of the Afghan war since it began in late 2001. According to the nonprofit website icasualties.org, 529 foreign military personnel have died in Afghanistan this year -- eight more than in 2009.The spike in the number of deaths comes after President Barack Obama ordered a surge of some 30,000 more U.S. troops to the country, which has led to increasing combat with Taliban fighters, especially in the Afghan south where the chopper went down.
NATO uses helicopters mainly to transport troops across rural mountainous swaths of Afghanistan where roads are scarce.
While NATO said there was no enemy fire in the area, a Taliban spokesman phoned The Associated Press to claim responsibility for downing the aircraft. But the group frequently exaggerates its reach and takes credit for accidents.
Today's crash took place in Zabul province, a spokesman for the provincial governor told news agencies. Zabul lies to the east of volatile Kandahar province, near the border with Pakistan. It's a sparsely populated region with low mountains and desert plains.
This is the deadliest helicopter crash in Afghanistan since Oct. 26, 2009, when seven U.S. servicemen and three DEA agents returning home from the scene of a firefight with suspected Taliban drug traffickers were killed in a crash in western Afghanistan. In May 2006, a Chinook crashed during a nighttime landing in eastern Kunar province, killing 10 American soldiers. That followed a 2005 crash in Kunar that killed 16 U.S. soldiers, The Associated Press reported.
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