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Spain suspects Afghan copter crash was accident

Posted on: Wednesday, 17 August 2005, 07:45 CDT

MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish investigators suspect an accident rather than an attack caused the military helicopter crash in Afghanistan that killed all 17 Spanish soldiers on board, officials said on Wednesday.

But the armed forces still were not completely ruling out that the helicopter may have been shot down on Tuesday, a spokesman in the prime minister's office said.

"Nothing has been ruled out, but the experts say that so far there is no evidence that it could have been an attack nor friendly fire," the spokesman said.

"There were very strong winds in the area," he said.

Officials with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan have been saying from the start the cause was probably an accident. Spain is conducting an investigation.

Defense Minister Jose Bono, who flew to Afghanistan on Tuesday, has informed Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero of the initial findings, the spokesman said.

The Spanish troops with the NATO-led peacekeeping operation were on an exercise near the western city of Herat when their helicopter went down in a flat area surrounded by mountains.

A second helicopter flying nearby spotted a column of black smoke rising from the scene and, suspecting there may have been hostile fire, made an emergency landing that slightly wounded five soldiers.

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

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

Source: REUTERS

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