Kandahar, Afghanistan : A NATO
helicopter went down near southern Afghanistan’s main city of Kandahar killing
at least five British soldiers working for International Security Assistance
Force (ISAF) on Saturday, according to a statement released by NATO.
British defense ministry in
London also confirmed the helicopter was British.
"We can confirm that a
UK helicopter crashed in southern Afghanistan today, the incident is under
investigation and it would be inappropriate to comment further until families
have been notified."
It is not clear that whether
helicopter was downed by Taliban or crashed by some technical fault which
happened near Kandahar city.
The spokesman of Kandahar in
his statement said, "Today at 11
a.m. (0630 GMT) an ISAF helicopter crashed due to technical problems in Takhteh
Pol district. As a result five ISAF soldiers were killed".
NATO forces are already winding
down its operations in anticipation of withdrawing almost all troops from Afghanistan
by the end of the year and with current incident the death toll of its forces reaches
to more than 20 since January.
Source: (AP, AFP, Reuters,)