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Afghan helicopter crash kills 9 Americans

A helicopter crash killed nine American troops from the NATO-led force in Afghanistan's south on Tuesday, NBC News reported.
Image: U.S. Army Apache attack helicopter
A U.S. Apache attack helicopter takes off after refueling during a several-hour firefight against the Taliban in Afghanistan's Zhari district on Aug. 20.Brennan Linsley / AP file
/ Source: NBC News and news services

A Black Hawk helicopter crashed Tuesday in southern Afghanistan, killing nine American troops, NBC News reported, making 2010 the deadliest year for foreign troops in the nine-year war.

The Taliban claimed to have shot down the helicopter in Zabul province, but U.S. military officials stress there were no signs of hostile fire at the time of the accident.

Citing U.S. officials, NBC News said that all of the victims were American and that the crash's cause remained under investigation.

Their identities of the victims is being withheld pending formal notification of relatives.

One other coalition service member, an Afghan National Army soldier and a U.S. civilian were injured.

In addition, NATO reported that another coalition service member died following an explosion in southern Afghanistan. No other details of the incident were disclosed.

The copter crash came shortly after one of the bloodiest days of the year on Saturday, when the Taliban launched scores of attacks across the country in a bid to disrupt a parliamentary election that has been tarnished by a growing number of fraud complaints.

The Afghan Independent Election Commission said counting had finished at all 5,897 polling stations that had opened, and that a total of 4.3 million ballots were cast.

That would be the lowest number of voters out of all four elections held since the Taliban was ousted in 2001. The ballots now have to be taken to provincial centers before coming to the capital, Kabul, for a final tally.

The country's Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) said it has received almost 3,000 formal complaints about the weekend poll and was considering extending Tuesday's deadline for submitting grievances because thousands more were expected.

At least 529 foreign troops have been killed in the Afghan war this year, according to monitoring website iCasualties.org. NBC News reported that the incident put the U.S. death toll this year at 351. Last year, 521 foreign troops were killed.

Taliban spokesperson Qari Yousef told NBC News that the insurgent group had downed the chopper. However, the Taliban often claim responsibility for events in which they have not been involved.

'A lot of smoke in the sky'
Mohammad Jan Rasoolyar, a spokesman for the provincial governor in Zabul, told the AP the helicopter went down in Daychopan district.

"I was sitting taking my tea," said Nakeemullah, 20, who works transporting livestock in the area. "I heard noise and I went outside to see what happened.

"I saw a lot of smoke in the sky," said Nakeemullah, who uses only one name. "It was far away for me, but I could see that it was a helicopter and it went down on the backside of the mountain where I couldn't see."

At least 2,097 foreign troops have been killed since the war began, about 60 percent of them American, according to Reuters.

Violence is at its worst across Afghanistan since the Taliban was ousted by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in 2001, with military and civilian casualties at record levels.

The crash came soon after one of the deadliest days of the year Saturday, when the Taliban launched scores of attacks across the country in a bid to disrupt a parliamentary election.

Meanwhile, Two NATO-led commanders from northern Afghanistan said Tuesday that the Taliban in the North are running low on weapons and morale and are "thinking about giving up."

The top NATO commander in the North, Maj. Gen. Hans Werner Fritz, told Pentagon reporters in a video-teleconference that the battle with the Taliban in the North "is reaching a culmination point," NBC News reorted. He said that they "do not have money to buy weapons and ammunition" and if this continues their power and influence in the region will continue to diminish.

The deputy commander, U.S. Army Col. Sean Mulholland, said in many areas of the North, the situation is "close to the tipping point," NBC News reported. The Taliban is "running out of equipment, out of bullets, out of food and out of money."

Mulholland said the Taliban are so demoralized in the North that they're talking to coalition forces "about giving up.  The Taliban don't want to fight anymore."

Both commanders made it clear they were talking only about the situation in some parts of North, and the Taliban still remain a serious threat in other areas.

Also Tuesday, NATO said Afghan and NATO forces had conducted an operation Sunday and Monday to disrupt the Taliban's freedom of movement outside its heartland of Kandahar city, killing at least 11 insurgents and destroying several improvised explosive devices.

Missile strikes along Pakistan border
Meanwhile, suspected U.S. missiles struck on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border Tuesday, killing at least 19 alleged militants — seven in Afghanistan and 12 in Pakistan, three Pakistani intelligence officials said. The second strike hit the compound in Pakistan where bodies from the first strike were taken, they said.

NATO in Afghanistan said it had no reports of such an incident. U.S. officials rarely discuss the covert CIA-led missile program.

The first strike hit an insurgent vehicle in the Khand Narai area of Paktika province in eastern Afghanistan. Two of the three Pakistani intelligence officials said the militants belonged to an insurgent group led by Maulvi Nazir. Nazir is believed to have an agreement with Pakistani authorities that they will leave him alone so long as his men avoid attacks on Pakistani soil.

Taliban sources told NBC News that their people were engaged in last rituals of their slain colleagues when the drone fired missiles and struck the house.

The officials said the militants had just crossed into Afghanistan when the missiles hit. Their bodies were taken across the border to Azam Warsak village in Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal region. A second strike hit the compound in that village later Tuesday evening. The Pakistani officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media on the record.

The U.S. routinely uses missile strikes to take out insurgent groups. Most hit targets in Pakistan's tribal belt, a semiautonomous and lawless stretch of territory that has a very porous border with Afghanistan.

Also on Tuesday, five Afghan road construction workers were killed and four wounded when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Shinwari district of Parwan province, said Shinwari police official Abdul Shakoor. Parwan is in northeastern Afghanistan.

Violence in Afghanistan in recent months has soared to its highest levels since the Taliban were toppled by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in late 2001.

At the same time, foreign troops have been increasing the reach and scale of operations to seek out the Taliban, especially in Helmand and Kandahar provinces in the south, and U.S. commanders have warned of more tough times ahead.

There are almost 150,000 foreign troops fighting a growing Taliban-led insurgency in Afghanistan, supporting about 300,000 Afghan security forces.

U.S. President Barack Obama ordered in an extra 30,000 troops late last year, the last units of which arrived this month.