Peacekeeping helicopter crashes in Kabul

An international peacekeeping force helicopter crashed in an industrial neighbourhood of Kabul today, killing five peacekeepers, spokesman British army Major Gordon Mackenzie said.

Two children on the ground also died, said Kabul police chief Bashir Salangi. The peacekeeping troops were Germans, he added.

In Germany, the Defence Ministry said the helicopter, a Sikorsky CH-53, belonged to the German military.

There was no immediate information on the cause of the crash, Major Mackenzie said, but he added that it had not been fired upon. He said there was smoke in the helicopter.

An eyewitness reported seeing a fire on the helicopter before it crashed in an industrial neighbourhood on the eastern edge of the Afghan capital, about 1.2 miles from the airport.

“I looked up and I saw a fire on the helicopter and then it turned on to its left side and crashed in among the buildings,” said Mohammed Mousa, a worker in the area. He said there was no indication that anything was fired at the helicopter.

International peacekeepers quickly cordoned off the area.

The International Security Assistance Force has 4,800 men deployed in the Afghan capital of Kabul to bring security to the war-ravaged city of 2.5 million people.

Mackenzie said the peacekeepers were at the site of the crash.

The crash came a day after the Germany’s Parliament voted overwhelmingly to extend by a year the mandate of German troops in the Afghan security force, doubling the country’s troop contingent to 2,500 to allow Germany and the Netherlands to take command of the force early next year.

The only previous German deaths among the peacekeeping force in Kabul occurred in March when two Germans and three Danish soldiers were killed as they disarmed two Soviet-era anti-aircraft missiles.