Spanish troops die in Afghan crash

[Scurrilous]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/08/16/afghan.crash/

<snip>

"Seventeen Spanish troops died in what appeared to be an accidental helicopter crash in Afghanistan on Tuesday, a spokesman in the Spanish prime minister's office told CNN.

These are the first Spanish troop fatalities in Afghanistan.

The 17 were serving under NATO command as part of a Spanish contingent of about 800 peacekeeping troops there.

The spokesman said "a helicopter crashed" although he had no immediate further information on the circumstances of the accident."

[cthrumatrix]

1. my prayers for their families....may truth in all this madness win out

[sintax]

2. getting more intense in Afghanistan n/t

[MaineDem]

3. From the BBC: Afghan crash kills Spanish troops

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4155916.stm

The BBC News broadcast said 5 soldiers are still missing. THis is in a very different area from where the US helo went down a little while ago. The BBC reporter said this is a fairly peaceful area of the country, unlike the border area near Pakistan, and he speculated that this was not a result of hostile action.

[kurtyboy]

4. Kick

"We think it was an accident. We think it crashed into the ground after a mechanical failure, but we are not sure and we are investigating," he said.

But Spanish Defence Minister Jose Bono refused to rule out the possibility that the helicopters had come under attack.

"It may have been an accident or it may have been an attack from the outside," he told a news conference.

"It has absolutely not been ruled out that it might have been an attack," he said.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4155916.stm

[Barrett808]

5. Afghan helicopter crash kills 17 Spanish troops

MADRID (Reuters) - Seventeen Spanish troops were killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan on Tuesday, a Defense Ministry spokesman said.

The helicopter went down south of Spain's base at Herat, the spokesman said. The cause was unknown, he said.

Spain said in June it was sending an extra 500 troops to Afghanistan to boost security ahead of September elections there, adding to 500 it already had there.

The crash would be 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.

In Kabul, an official of the NATO-led force said a helicopter crash in western Afghanistan had killed a number of NATO-led peacekeepers.

Rescue teams had been sent to the crash site near the airport in Herat, said Andrea Tolan, a press official for the International Security Assistance Force, Afghanistan's NATO-led peacekeeping force.

"Yes, we have a report that says a chopper has crashed. We know that some soldiers have died," she said. "But I do not know the number of deaths. The chopper was on an exercise when it crashed."

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2005-08-16T104143Z_01_DIT638516_RTRIDST_0_INTERNATIONAL-AFGHANISTAN-TROOPS-SPAIN-DC.XML

[tocqueville]

6. NATO helicopter crash in Afghanistan kills 17 Spanish troops

36 minutes ago

KABUL (AFP) - Seventeen Spanish peacekeepers were killed when a NATO helicopter crashed during training in western Afghanistan, and Madrid said it was not ruling out an attack.

Five soldiers were also wounded when a second Spanish chopper taking part in the exercise made an emergency landing as the first one plunged to the ground near the main western city of Herat.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20050816/ts_afp/afghanistannatospain_050816142450

[Julius Civitatus]

7. Wow!

That's a horrible event.

[daleo]

8. I have my doubts about an accident.

They always say this at first.