Dozens Killed as NATO Helicopter Shot Down in Afghanistan

By RAY RIVERA and ALISSA J. RUBIN

KABUL, Afghanistan — Insurgents shot down a NATO Chinook helicopter during an overnight operation in eastern Afghanistan, killing 37 people on board, a military official said on Saturday. It was one of the worst single-day losses of life for coalition troops in the nearly decade-long war and comes amid rising violence across the country.

The majority of those killed were NATO troops but Afghan soldiers were also among the dead, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the crash was still being investigated.

The helicopter was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade in the Tangi valley of the Wardak Province just west of Kabul. The Taliban claimed credit for the attack.

U.S. Air Force Capt. Justin Brockhoff, a NATO spokesman, confirmed the crash but could provide no further information, including what caused the crash or whether there were casualties.

There were conflicting accounts on when the helicopter went down. A spokesman for the Taliban, Zabiullah Mujaheed, said insurgents shot down the helicopter around 11 p.m. Friday as it was launching an operation on a house where the militants were gathering in the Tangi Joyee region of Saydabad District in the eastern part of the province. Eight militants were killed in the fight that continued after the helicopter fell, he said.

“The fresh reports from the site tells us that there are still Americans doing search operations for the bodies and pieces of the helicopter are on the ground,” Mr. Mujaheed said.

The nationality of the NATO soldiers killed was not immediately known, though Americans were known to be carrying out the majority of operations in the area.

Gen. Abdul Qayoom Baqizoy, police chief of Wardak, said the operation began around 1 a.m. Saturday as NATO and Afghan forces attacked a Taliban compound in Jaw-e-mekh Zareen village in the Tangi valley. The firefight lasted at least two hours, the general said.

“It was at the end of the operation that one of the NATO helicopters crashed,” he said. “We don’t know yet the cause of the crash and we don’t know how many NATO soldiers were on board.”

The Tangi valley runs along the border of Wardak and the neighboring province of Logar. Taliban activity has been heavy in both provinces, which border the capital of Kabul.

Abdul Waheed Wafa contributed reporting from Kabul.