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CORRECTED-At least 17 Spanish troops die in Afghan crash

Posted on: Tuesday, 16 August 2005, 11:48 CDT

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.

Source: REUTERS

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