Seven killed in Afghan chopper crash

A helicopter on contract to Nato-led forces crashed today in southern Afghanistan, killing six civilians on board and an Afghan child on the ground.

Nato said the cause of the crash was under investigation but the owner reported it was shot down.

Officials also said two US Marines and an Italian soldier had been killed in the latest fighting.

The helicopter slammed into the ground and caught fire at daybreak in Helmand province’s Sangin district, said Fazel Haq, the top district official.

Six civilians on board were killed and an Afghan national on the ground was injured, said a spokesman for the Nato-led force.

A child on the ground was also killed, said Daud Ahmadi, a spokesman for Helmand’s governor.

In the former Soviet republic of Moldova, the government aviation authority said the Mi-26 helicopter was performing a humanitarian mission when it was struck by a missile or a rocket. The six-member crew were Ukrainians, a statement said.

The Taliban claimed to have shot down a helicopter with dozens of British troops aboard. Nato and Moldovan authorities said no one was aboard except the crew.

Elsewhere in the south, two US Marines were killed in a “hostile incident” on Monday, said US military spokeswoman Capt. Elizabeth Mathias. She did not provide any other details.

The Italian Defence Ministry said a roadside bomb killed one Italian soldier and wounded three others in western Afghanistan today.

Separately, a roadside blast today hit a civilian vehicle in Uruzgan, another southern province, killing three people and wounded six others, according to an Interior Ministry statement. It said all the victims were civilians.