A civilian helicopter crash that killed 16 people at a Nato base in southern Afghanistan pushed up the death toll today in the US and allied effort to break the Taliban.
In Afghanistan's east, a suicide bomber killed two police and a civilian at Torkham, an important border crossing point with Pakistan, officials said.
Thousands of US Marines and British troops have launched offensives in Helmand, a Taliban stronghold and the major producer of opium that funds their insurgency, as part of President Barack Obama's new strategy to combat the Islamist insurgents.
In Kandahar, which is adjacent to Helmand, Captain Ruben Hoornveld, a Dutch Nato spokesman, said there was no enemy involvement in the crash which occurred as the helicopter was taking off at the sprawling Kandahar Air Field.
Russia's Interfax news agency described the helicopter as an Mi-8 transporter, operated by a Russian firm, and said it had 17 passengers and three crew on board. The nationalities of those killed were not immediately known.
It was the second crash involving a Soviet-era helicopter in a week. Six Ukrainian crew members died when an Mi-26 transport helicopter crashed in Helmand on Tuesday.
Nato and US forces rely heavily on aircraft for troop and cargo movement in a country where travel by road is difficult. They occasionally hire cargo aircraft from former Soviet states.
July has already become the deadliest month of the eight-year-old-war for foreign troops, putting pressure on political leaders in Washington and London. Commanders have said Mr Obama's new strategy and his decision to pour in thousands more troops this year would lead to a spike in casualties.
Civilians have also been suffering at record levels. The suicide bomber attack on the Torkham border post was the second deadly attack on the post in three weeks.
With Britain suffering its worst battlefield casualties since the Falklands War in the 1980s, political leaders recognise that patience at home is running thin. Britain has lost at least 185 soldiers in Afghanistan, more than during the Iraq war.
Afghanistan, which holds a presidential election on August 20th, has also become a hot political issue in Britain. Debate is raging over whether its troops in the south are adequately equipped, how long they should stay, or whether they should be there at all.
Britain has sent an extra 700 troops this year, bringing its total to 9,000 ahead of the election, a fraction of the tens of thousands of reinforcements sent by Washington.
But British military commanders have warned more troops and equipment such as helicopters may be needed, and at the very least the extra 700 troops will have to stay longer.
Reuters
