Five dead in British military helicopter crash in Afghanistan

Sat, Apr 26 10:17 AM EDT KABUL (Reuters) - Five service members were killed when a British helicopter crashed in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, the NATO-led coalition forces and the British Ministry of Defense said. An Afghan official said the helicopter carrying soldiers from the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) had crashed due to technical problems. "ISAF is still in the process of reviewing the circumstances to determine more facts," ISAF said. It did not provide details of their nationalities. A spokesman for Kandahar Governor Tooryalai Wesa confirmed the crash occurred near Kandahar City. "Today at 11 am (0630 GMT) an ISAF helicopter crashed due to technical problems in Takhteh Pol district. As a result five ISAF soldiers were killed," spokesman Dawakhan Minapal said. In London, the Ministry of Defense said the helicopter was British but did not elaborate on the nationalities of the dead. "We can confirm that a UK helicopter crashed in southern Afghanistan today," the ministry said in a statement. "The incident is under investigation and it would be inappropriate to comment further until families have been notified." Foreign forces casualties have fallen in the past few months, as U.S.-led forces start to wind down operations ahead of a year-end deadline to leave Afghanistan. The United States has been at odds with President Hamid Karzai who has refused U.S. entreaties to sign a bilateral security agreement that would permit about 8,000 U.S. troops to remain in the country after the formal U.S. withdrawal at the end of the year. The leading contenders to replace Karzai have, however, said they will sign the agreement to allow the small contingent of U.S. forces to stay in the country for counter-terrorism and Afghan training purposes. Since the start of the year, nearly twice as many foreign civilians have been killed in attacks this year compared to foreign troops. At least 24 foreign civilians, including doctors and journalists, have been shot or killed in bomb attacks. (Reporting by Jeremy Laurence; Additional reporting by Ismail Sameem in Kandahar and Stephen Addison in London; Editing by Kim Coghill and Raissa Kasolowsky)

Afghan policewoman kills coalition contractor in Kabul: NATO

Afghan policewoman kills coalition contractor in Kabul: NATO Mon, Dec 24 05:44 AM EST 1 of 4 By Mirwais Harooni and Hamid Shalizi KABUL (Reuters) - An Afghan woman wearing a police uniform shot dead on Monday a civilian contractor working for Western forces in the police chief's compound in Kabul, NATO said. The incident is likely to raise troubling questions about the direction of an unpopular war. It appeared to be the first time that a woman member of Afghanistan's security forces carried out such an attack. There were conflicting reports about the victim. A spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said a U.S. police adviser was killed by an Afghan policewoman. Then ISAF said in a statement only that it was a "contracted civilian employee" who was killed. Mohammad Zahir, head of the police criminal investigation department, described the incident as an "insider attack" in which Afghan forces turn their weapons on Western troops they are supposed to be working with. He initially said the victim was a U.S. soldier. After more than 10 years of war, militants are capable of striking Western targets in the heart of the capital, and foreign forces worry that Afghan police and military forces they are supposed to work with can suddenly turn on them. The policewoman approached her victim as he was walking in the heavily guarded police chief's compound in a bustling area of Kabul. She then drew a pistol and shot him once, a senior police official told Reuters. The police complex is close to the Interior Ministry where in February, two American officers were shot dead at close range at a time anger gripped the country over the burning of copies of the Muslim holy book at a NATO base. "She is now under interrogation. She is crying and saying 'what have I done'," said the official, of the police officer who worked in a section of the Interior Ministry responsible for gender awareness issues. TIPS FOR TROOPS The insider incidents, also known as green-on-blue attacks, have undermined trust between coalition and Afghan forces who are under mounting pressure to contain the Taliban insurgency before most NATO combat troops withdraw by the end of 2014. Security responsibilities in a country plagued by conflict for decades will be handed to Afghan security forces. Many Afghans fear a civil war like one dominated by warlords after the withdrawal of Soviet occupying forces in 1989 could erupt again, or the Taliban will make another push to seize power if they reject a nascent peace process. At least 52 members of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force have been killed this year by Afghans wearing police or army uniforms. Insider attacks now account for one in every five combat deaths suffered by NATO-led forces in Afghanistan, and 16 percent of all U.S. combat casualties, according to 2012 data. Hoping to stop the increase in the attacks, Afghan Defense Ministry officials have given their troops tips in foreign culture. They are told not to be offended by a hearty pat on the back or an American soldier asking after your wife's health. NATO attributes only about a quarter of the attacks to the Taliban, saying the rest are caused by personal grievances and misunderstandings. Last year, there were 35 deaths in such attacks. (Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Robert Birsel

British hostage in Afghanistan killed in rescue bid

09 Oct 2010 12:51:19 GMT
Source: Reuters
(For more on Afghanistan, click on [ID:nAFPAK])

* British aid worker was kidnapped last month

* Four Italian troops killed in attack

* Karzai seeks tribal support for southern offensive

By Patrick Markey

KABUL, Oct 9 (Reuters) - A British aid worker kidnapped by gunmen in Afghanistan last month was killed by her captors after a failed rescue bid, the British government said on Saturday, and four more NATO troops died in an insurgent attack.

The aid worker's death came as President Hamid Karzai sought tribal support for a NATO-led offensive against the Taliban in their southern heartland in an attempt to turn the tide in a war that has now dragged on for more than nine years.

Linda Norgrove, 36, who worked for a U.S. aid group, had been held hostage since Sept. 26 after she was seized with three Afghan co-workers as they visited a project in remote part of Kunar province, a lawless region bordering Pakistan.

"Responsibility for this tragic outcome rests squarely with the hostage takers. From the moment they took her, her life was under grave threat," British Foreign Secretary William Hague said in a statement.

Hague gave no further details on the Friday night rescue bid and the motives for Norgrove's kidnap were unclear. Norgrove, a former U.N. worker, was director of a $150 million U.S. aid project designed to build local economies.

Her death highlights the increasing dangers faced by aid workers in Afghanistan, where insurgents and other armed groups hold sway in many parts of the country.

In August, eight foreign medical workers, including a British female doctor, as well as two Afghans, were killed by unidentified gunmen in the remote northeast. Insurgents are still holding two French journalists seized last December.

The Afghanistan war is weighing increasingly on President Barack Obama's administration as he and his NATO allies face pressure at home to bring the unpopular war to an end.

MORE FOREIGN TROOPS DIE

The conflict is at its most violent since the Taliban were overthrown in late 2001 by U.S.-backed forces. Around 150,000 foreign troops are in the country and more 2,000 have been killed since the war began, over half just in the last two years.

In the latest violence, four Italian troops were killed in an insurgent attack in the west of the country. The soldiers from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, were returning from a mission when their vehicle was ambushed, Italy's defence ministry said.

"This assault against Italian soldiers is an example of the high human cost we have to pay for a mission that is fundamental to our national security," Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said in a statement.

The upsurge in violence coincides with the launch of a campaign by thousands of U.S. troops to drive the insurgents out of areas surrounding the southern city of Kandahar, the spiritual home of the hardline Taliban.

Karzai travelled to Kandahar on Saturday with the commander of U.S. and NATO forces, General David Petraeus, and U.S. ambassador Karl Eikenberry to seek support from hundreds of tribal elders in Arghandab, a volatile district where U.S. troops are fighting.

"I ask you to help cooperate with the government. We have brought security for you people," Karzai told the elders. "Try to keep it stable and try to tell those elders who have left their villages for the cities to come back."

The Kandahar offensive comes at a key time for Obama who faces November mid-term elections and also an end-of-year review of the Afghanistan war strategy.

The insurgency has extended its reach in recent years from its traditional heartland in the south and east of the country to once more peaceful regions, particularly the north.

On Friday, a large bomb in a mosque killed the governor of northern Kunduz province and at least a dozen others as they attended prayers in the highest profile assassination of a government official in more than a year.

In December, Obama ordered 30,000 more troops into Afghanistan to curb the Taliban's resurgence, but he also said U.S. forces would start to come home from July next year as they turn security over to the Afghan armed forces. (Additional reporting by Jonathon Burch, Ismail Sameem in Kabul and Catherine Hornby in Rome and Mohammed Abbas in London) (For more Reuters coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan, see: http://www.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/afghanistanpakistan)