NATO helicopter crashes, airstrike kills 8 Afghans

By Abdul Malik

LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan |
Sat Aug 6, 2011 3:05pm IST

LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan (Reuters) – A NATO airstrike in southern Afghanistan killed eight civilians, adding to a 2011 toll that is the deadliest for civilians in the decade-old war, and a NATO helicopter crashed in the east amid fighting with insurgents, police and the NATO-led coalition said on Saturday.

Taliban fighters said they had brought down the helicopter, but it was not immediately clear why it had crashed or whether there were any casualties.

Violence is at its worst in Afghanistan since U.S.-backed Afghan forces toppled the Taliban government in late 2001, with high levels of foreign troop deaths, and record civilian casualties during the first six months of 2011.

The NATO airstrike, with eight dead, took place on Friday afternoon in southern Helmand province.

Civilian casualties caused by NATO-led troops hunting Taliban fighters and other insurgents have long been a major source of friction between Kabul and its Western backers.

The airstrike occurred in Helmand’s Nad Ali district after insurgents had attacked troops from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in the area, said Nad Ali district police chief Shidi Khan.

ISAF confirmed an airstrike was carried out after a coalition patrol came under attack and said it was investigating the incident after meeting local leaders.

In eastern Afghanistan, ISAF said a helicopter had crashed overnight and it was in the process of recovering it.

Nawaz Haqyar, police chief of Maidan Wardak province, said the helicopter had come down in the province, which is west of the country’s capital Kabul.

The Taliban said in a statement that its fighters had brought down the helicopter. It said eight insurgents from the Islamist group had been killed in the fighting.

CIVILIANS HELD HOSTAGE

The victims of Friday’s airstrike in Helmand were members of a family that had fled fighting in a neighbouring province, police said.

ISAF said the civilians may have been held hostage by the insurgents.

“Shortly after the (airstrike), coalition forces received reports that civilians were being held captive by the insurgents and may have been present during the airstrike,” an ISAF spokesman said.

A gradual transition of security control to Afghan forces began last month, when areas were handed over by the ISAF. Afghan forces are to take full control across the country by the end of 2014.

The most contentious of the first seven areas to be handed over was Helmand provincial capital Lashkar Gah.

Helmand province has been the site of some of the most vicious fighting of the war. Far more foreign troops have died there than in any other province and there are still several Helmand districts dominated by the Taliban.

In the past month, insurgents have carried out a string of destabilising assassinations of high-profile southern leaders, including President Hamid Karzai’s younger brother, and several large attacks killing police and civilians.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said that the first six months of 2011 had been the deadliest period for civilians since the Taliban were toppled by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in late 2001.

It said 1,462 civilians were killed in conflict-related incidents, up 15 percent on the first half of 2010. It blamed insurgents for 80 percent of those deaths.

(Additional reporting by Mustafa Andalib in GHAZNI and Mirwais Harooni in KABUL, writing by Michelle Nichols, editing by Ron Popeski)

Article source: http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/INsouthAsiaNews/~3/2jFDtcedDT0/idINIndia-58648320110806

Tags: Breaking News, World News