CORRECTED-At least 17 Spanish troops die in Afghan crash

In KABUL story headlined “At least 17 Spanish troops die in
Afghan crash” please read in 3rd paragraph …Spanish Defense
Minister Jose Bono said… instead of …Spanish Defense
Minister Lose Bono said… A corrected repetition follows:

By Sayed Salahuddin

KABUL (Reuters) – At least 17 Spanish troops with the
NATO-led peacekeeping operation in Afghanistan were killed on
Tuesday in a helicopter crash during an exercise near the
western city of Herat, a Spanish Defense Ministry spokesman
said.

Another helicopter was forced to make an emergency landing
after the first chopper went down south of Spain’s base at
Herat. Spanish state radio reported that five troops from the
second helicopter were injured.

Spanish Defense Minister Jose Bono said the second Cougar
helicopter flying in the area had spotted a column of black
smoke rising from a nearby valley and added that the crash
could have been caused by an attack.

“It may have been an accident or it may have been an attack
from the outside,” Bono told a news conference. “It has
absolutely not been ruled out that it might have been an
attack.”

Major Andrew Elmes, a spokesman for the NATO-led
International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), said ISAF
believed the crash was an accident, adding an investigation was
under way to find out what caused it.

A senior Taliban commander, Mullah Dadullah, said
guerrillas had shot down the chopper but he had no proof.

Both helicopters had been on exercise at the time in
preparation for the Afghan parliamentary polls slated for next
month.

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero interrupted his
holiday to return to Madrid.

Herat is in the heart of a relatively secure part of
Afghanistan and the Taliban and its Islamic allies are less
active there than in the eastern and southern parts of the
country.

The crash is the second air disaster for Spanish troops in
Afghanistan. In 2003 a plane bringing 62 Spanish peacekeepers
back from Afghanistan crashed in Turkey, killing all those on
board.

Taliban militants shot down a U.S. military helicopter in
June in the eastern province of Kunar, killing 16 American
soldiers on board.

Eighteen Americans — 15 service personnel and three
civilians — also died in a helicopter crash during a dust
storm in Ghazni province on April 6.

ISAF is made up of more than 8,000 troops from 36
countries, most of them NATO members.

The crash of a chartered Ukrainian Yak-42 in Turkey
prompted sharp criticism of the previous, center-right
government and relatives accused the Defense Ministry of
putting soldiers on second-rate planes.

Spain has about 1,000 troops in Afghanistan, increasing its
presence after Zapatero pulled Spanish troops out of Iraq —
one of his first moves when he took office after winning March
2004 elections.