Deadliest Day… Helicopter Tragedies: Two Crashes in Afghanistan, 14 Dead American Soldiers and Civilians, 11 Dead Afghans Total
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on October 26, 2009
Pray for our American soldiers and civilians who have died in Afghan helicopter crashes
Unbelievable tragedy… two different helicopter crashes in Afghanistan have claimed many lives: 10 dead Americans and 11 Afghans in one, 4 dead American soldiers in the other.
Please pray for their families and loved ones.
From ABC News: 14 Americans Killed in Afghanistan Helicopter Crash:
Fourteen Americans died this morning after two helicopters collided and a third chopper crashed in Afghanistan on the deadliest day in years for U.S. troops in the country.
Seven U.S. service members and three U.S. civilians died in the single-helicopter crash, which injured 14 U.S. service members, one U.S. civilian and 11 Afghans.
The helicopter was involved in an anti-drug operation in Badghis province in northwestern Afghanistan.
The dead service members were part of U.S. Special Operations forces, a U.S. defense official said.
In a separate incident, four U.S. service members were killed and two injured when two helicopters collided and crashed in southern Afghanistan.
The “separate tragedies today underscore the risks our forces and our partners face every day,” said a spokesman for the International Joint Security Forces Operations.
Neither incident resulted from hostile fire, according to the military.
From AFP: Chopper crash kills troops, Karzai takes aim at US:
KABUL — An apparent mid-air collision killed another four American soldiers in Afghanistan on Monday as President Hamid Karzai questioned the reliability of the United States ahead of a run-off election.
The collision in southern Afghanistan came as NATO-led forces reported that another helicopter crashed in the northwest of the country following a raid on suspected drug traffickers.
The current year has been the most deadly for the more than 100,000 NATO and US troops fighting a resurgent Taliban since the 2001 US-led invasion ousted the Islamists’ extremist regime in Kabul.
NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said the crash in the south was currently being investigated but no hostile fire was involved.
“Four ISAF service members were killed and two others injured in the incident,” it said in a statement, adding that the two helicopters had apparently collided in mid-air.
Colonel Wayne Shanks, US military spokesman in Kabul, confirmed the four dead soldiers were Americans.
The second crash happened in western Baghdis province during a joint search operation by Afghan and Western forces of “a suspected compound believed to harbour insurgents conducting activities related to narcotics trafficking”.
Additional reading:
Gateway Pundit: 14 Americans Die in Separate Afghan Helicopter Crashes
Political Byline: 14 Americans killed in 2 helicopter crashes in Afghanistan
Ace of Spades HQ: 14 Americans Dead In Afghanistan Helicopter Crashes
Infidels Paradise: 14 Americans Killed In Afghanistan In A Pair Of Helicopter Crashes
RedState: Obama plays golf instead of deciding whether to send more troops to Afghanistan — McChrystal issued his report 8 weeks ago, when will Obama issue a decision?
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