U.S. Helicopter Crashes in Afghanistan, 5 Killed

[Purveyor]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. military helicopter crashed on Sunday in Afghanistan killing five service personnel, U.S. Central Command said.

The helicopter crashed near Bagram and early reports indicated that seven members of the U.S. military were injured in addition to the dead, a statement said.


Link to Reuters

[NNN0LHI]

1. Link no worky

[Purveyor]

5. Fixed it...

And thanks for alerting me to the problem.

[VolcanoJen]

2. Working Reuters link here:

Posted at 4:56 pm ET.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=BSYEROG1NGWUUCRBAELCFEY?type=topNews&storyID=3878014

You might have to cut and paste the url into your address window. It's tricky to get these Reuters links to come up quickly, or accurately; however, their news service has been, for the most part, the first to break stories from Iraq or Afghanistan.

Here's a working link to the same story from news.com.au:

http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,7960182%255E1702,00.html

[Mika]

3. Link here

Reuters link here

[NNN0LHI]

4. Thanks Jen. Here is a clickable link

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=564&ncid=716&e=13&u=/nm/20031123/ts_nm/afghan_usa_helicopter_dc

[MrPrax]

39. Reuters link...

I usually grab the Reuters stuff from their http://www.alertnet.org/

KABUL, Nov 24 (Reuters) - A U.S. military helicopter crashed on Sunday near the American military headquarters in Afghanistan, killing five personnel and injuring seven, the U.S. Central Command said.

"The cause of the crash is unknown and under military investigation," a statement from Central Command said.

The helicopter crashed near Bagram Air Base and the troops on board were involved in the latest U.S. operation in Afghanistan, dubbed "Mountain Resolve", it said.

Bagram Air Base, just north of the Afghan capital, is the headquarters for 11,500 U.S.-led troops hunting remnants of the Taliban and al Qaeda network in Afghanistan. Another 5,000 international peacekeepers guard Kabul.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SP73523.htm

[IndianaGreen]

6. More evidence of the great progress we are making

at this rate the Taliban should surrender any day now!

[NNN0LHI]

9. Taliban Leader Mullah Mohammad Omar Urges Afghan Action Vs. US Troops

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=564&ncid=716&e=15&u=/nm/20031123/ts_nm/afghan_taliban_message_dc

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) - The supreme leader of the ousted Taliban, Mullah Mohammad Omar, urged Afghans to unite against U.S.-led foreign forces on their soil, a Pakistan-based Afghan news service reported Sunday.

Omar, in his message ahead of Eid-ul Fitr which marks the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, said promises of democracy and reconstruction made two years ago in Afghanistan (news - web sites) were yet to be fulfilled, Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) said.

"Now the U.S.-backed system is two years old. Where is the democracy, freedom, human rights and reconstruction?" Taliban spokesman Hamid Agha quoted Omar as saying in a message delivered to some Pakistani newspapers.

AIP said a few newspaper offices in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar had received the one-page message in the Pashto language.

more

[0007]

16. Is the Northern Alliance still operating?

And if so who's side are they on now? I'm not sure but I thought I read a while back that they gave the U.S. the pitch.

[NNN0LHI]

22. Think they're using a different name but they are still raping and killing

Afterall, thats what they do best.

Don

[UpInArms]

7. iirc Attila the Hun was the last

invader to conquer Afghanistan -

we learned nothing from Russia's defeat there (we supported Osama bin Laden and his followers in that endeavor)

we refuse to rebuild the country that we bombed back to the stone age - we as a nation are stupid

I am so sorry that the youngest segment of our society pays for the failings of those that are older and supposed to know better.

[DUreader]

8. "Crashes". Why do I think it was shot down?

fool me... um fool me won't get fooled again

[mobuto]

Well, either way it crashed

Whether it was shot down or crashed for some other reason (Bagram, Afghanistan is not exactly heaven for maintenance workers) is not yet clear.

[mobuto]

11. Well, either way it crashed

Whether it was shot down or crashed for some other reason (Bagram, Afghanistan is not exactly heaven for maintenance workers) is not yet clear.

On Edit: I'm not sure why this posted twice. Apologies for robbing your bandwidth.

[dansolo]

41. No witnesses

They can claim it was a crash if no one was there to see it shot down.

[pdove]

10. Are our soldiers falling like flys?

So much more progress to be made in both Iraq and Afganistan, according to Chimp.

[grasswire]

12. thirteen this weekend, isn't it?

sad, sad, sad.

[pdove]

13. The problem is I do not see when this will end!

I will blame our select Chimp and its Master Cheney.

[markses]

14. Where you getting 13?

I have 11:

3 today in Iraq + 2 yesterday in Iraq + 1 Friday in iraq + 5 in this incident = 11?

Right?

[mobuto]

24. Five killed in Iraq today

+2 killed in Mosul
+1 killed by IED
+2 killed when their humvee was run over by an M1-A1 Abrahms.

[markses]

27. Nope, the M1-A1- Humvee accident was yesterday

+2 in Mosul (11/23)
+1 IED (11/23)
+2 M1-A1 accident (11/22)
+1 canal drowning (11/21)

That's it. Not hard to follow, really. All reports from CENTCOM have details. The problem is that you have to read them; CENTCOM announced all 6 today.

[BenZodiac]

15. accidents happen...

Are you saying you don't support the removal of the Taliban, who directly supported Osama bin Laden?

What should we have done after 9/11?

[markses]

17. Hrrrumph! Are you saying?

Blah-dee-blah. Accidents happenh. Unfortunately, the good King George couldn't finish the job in Afghanistan, and has already bred MORE terrorist, not less, with his asinine and dishonest and criminal Iraq war.

So, net gain is fairly slim, especially as the Taliban consolidate in the countryside, and our buddy Dostum continues his murderous bullshit up north, and your pal bin Laden is nowhere to be found, though his friends are on a particularly effective killing spree.

Thanks for all the good work, Bushie, you incompetent, lying asshole.

BTW: I was in Lower Manhattan on 9/11, and friends of mine died in the Towers, all thanks to Bush's incompetence (whatever happened to Rummy's obsession with a missile defense shield - the only thing on their domestic defense agenda between 1/01 and 9/11/01?).

Incompetent. Greedy. Incompetent.

Accidents happen, indeed. So do crimes by greedy little criminal war mongers, like Bush the incompetent ass and his pack of criminals.

[annak110]

31. Check out the criminals in the military/industrial complex,

most of the earliest 2-300 people who have died in Iraq died in some sort of vehicle accident, usually a helicopter crash. Those of us who remember Vietnam remember many such crashes. The m/i makes junk and sells it to the thugs who run the us gov't.

Yes, incompetent, greedy, incompetent greedy THUGS.

How many people who should know have said that star wars (the so-called missile defense shield) will not work. Well, if it won't work as a defense against missiles as we all know it (they?) will surely work as an armed and deadly controller of the world's population

By the way, today's Netscape page contains a link to a story regarding "Technology Removes Need for Human Pilots" which is on CNN today-just today. Says its been in use for some time...

The direct link to the story follows:

<http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/ns/news/story.jsp?floc=FF-RTO-PLS&idq=/ff/story/0002/20031123/094566323.htm&photoid=20031113SAL01D>

[mobuto]

42. Blad-dee-blah

I'm glad I saw this post, because it indicates that you are at least as civil with others as you are with me.

So, net gain is fairly slim, especially as the Taliban consolidate in the countryside, and our buddy Dostum continues his murderous bullshit up north, and your pal bin Laden is nowhere to be found, though his friends are on a particularly effective killing spree.

This is all well and good, and I'd probably agree with many of your criticisms of the abortive Afghan war. But answer me this - was the invasion of Afghanistan justified or not, in your opinion?

Thanks for all the good work, Bushie, you incompetent, lying asshole.


George Bush is indeed an incompetent lying asshole, though I fail to see why you bring it up here.

BTW: I was in Lower Manhattan on 9/11, and friends of mine died in the Towers, all thanks to Bush's incompetence (whatever happened to Rummy's obsession with a missile defense shield - the only thing on their domestic defense agenda between 1/01 and 9/11/01?).

That's just plain horseshit. If a bunch of guys get together and tell all their friends that they're going to rob a bank on such and such a date, and then they print circulars and notices in the newspaper, and then they go and rob the bank, and even though the cops should know all about it and be there, for some reason they don't know and never manage to leave the Dunkin Donuts, then even then you can't say its all thanks to the cops' incompetence.

Yes, if Bush hadn't been incompetent 9/11 wouldn't have happened, but that's very different from saying its "all thanks to" him. No, I'm afraid here the buck stops with Osama bin Laden.

friends of mine died in the Towers

Join the club, pal.

whatever happened to Rummy's obsession with a missile defense shield - the only thing on their domestic defense agenda between 1/01 and 9/11/01?).

What do you mean what happened to it? Its received every dollar in funding the Bushies have asked for, and its going ahead. In fact, the $401.3 billion FY2004 defense appropriations bill contains $9.1 billion to protect Raytheon's NMD product line.

[Name removed]

43. Deleted message

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[Name removed]

44. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[pdove]

18. There is mounting evidence that Bush/Cheney has

prior knowledge of the attack. Read articles at rense.com.
That is why white house refuse to release information leading to 9/11.

[mobuto]

21. What evidence?

Please post this evidence, I have seen nothing to suggest that anybody had prior knowledge of the attacks other than Messrs Bin Laden, Atef and Zawahiri.

In fact, that's the central problem that the 9/11 commission should be looking at. Why the hell didn't we have advance knowledge?

[pdove]

26. 911 Investigations

Do you remember that a cell phone called to say that 93 is hijiacked.
Do you think you can make call while in the sky? There is no signal.


Bush Knew...And Now The Entire World Knows
http://www.rense.com/general25/knewknow.htm

Many other articles at
http://www.rense.com/Datapages/bushkn.html

Total Standdown on 9/11
http://www.standdown.net/

You have collect all information you can to make YOUR own judgement. Can you expect they tell the truth, if they commited such crime?

[mobuto]

29. Rubbish.

Do you remember that a cell phone called to say that 93 is hijiacked.
Do you think you can make call while in the sky? There is no signal.


That's just nonsense. I've forgoten to turn off my cell phone, and as a result received a call on a plane. I don't know what the reception would have been like, because I turned the phone off immediatly, but I clearly got a signal.

The real reason you're not allowed to use phones on planes is because phone companies have been lobbying against them. You're moving so fast, you occupy multiple cells on multiple towers, which screws up the network.

I'm really not sure where you're getting this.

[NickB79]

34. This was debated here before

And the final conclusion reached was that, yes, you can indeed recieve cell phone calls on an airplane, even travelling hundreds of miles per hr. Many people chimed in to support that conclusion, including people with many hours of experience flying planes themselves.

[Liberal Veteran]

19. Perhaps it would have been wise to finish the job before moving on?

And attacking Iraq for no reason at all other than it was in the PNAC agenda?

[mobuto]

23. Of course

Bush has invested neither the time, nor the manpower nor the funds necessary to turn Afghanistan into something other than a failed state and breeding ground for terrorism. Iraq is nothing other than a distraction from our very real need to wage war on terror.

[karlschneider]

20. The Taliban were not removed, they were temorarily disrupted. Now they

are regrouping while the Idiot in Chief continues this illegal, immoral invasion and occupation of the wrong country. Are you one of the people who think Iraq/Saddam had something to do with 9/11?

[DoYouEverWonder]

25. Then why doesn't W support the removal of the Taliban?

Why don't you ask him why orders were given to call off the special op forces who had Osama cornered near Tora Bora and then bring in the big guns with the helicopters to allow Osama and other members of al Qaeda to escape?

While you're at it, ask him why opium production is at an all time high and the Taliban are back in charge in most parts of Afghanistan? Oh and by the way, where's Osama now?

[NickB79]

33. We removed them? Really?

Cause we still haven't found the mastermind, Bin Laden, and we still haven't rebuilt Afghanistan at all. And, as we do nothing, the Taliban is regrouping. This past year had a record harvest for opium poppies in Afghanistan, from which heroin is made. The Taliban controls the opium flow out of the region, making hundreds of millions per year, and causing the deaths of thousands of heroin addicts worldwide.

IF we had finished what we started, taken out Al Queda and the Taliban for good after 9/11, I would have no issue. But we left before the job was done, only to have it come back and bite us in the ass.

[Palacsinta]

28. My friend's grandson is with the 101st Airborne.....

in Afghanistan. God, I hope he's okay....but then the dead is some other mother's son. It is all so tragic.

[mobuto]

30. The 101st

looks to be one of the best-led units in the Army at this point. All the best.

[BeHereNow]

40. These guys were from Fort Drum, NY

10th Mountain Reserve.
I am feeling so helpless right now because the
Centcom report states that they were on a support
mission for above said. That is what my nephew does.
Of course we can't get any information, and my brother,
his father, tells me that is because the military doesn't
even know for sure who was on the copter.
Could be some time before they even know.
Great- huh?
God keep your grandson safe.
BHN

[maggrwaggr]

32. funny how helicopters crash after they've been shot at

That's like saying "soldiers found dead in Iraq".

Uh .... they had bullet wounds, but we're not 100% sure that bullets killed them. Further investigation is being conducted.

[Catt03]

35. What's with these helicopters crashing

almost weekly?

Is there a flaw with these things?

[BeHereNow]

36. I am sick with fear right now...

My nephew is there doing soldier support battalion service.
The Centcom report says that the crew was on a support
mission.
I am FREAKING out- no names have been listed yet.
I have been having a bad feeling about it all day.
Please pray for my nephew, Robert.
BHN

[Nashyra]

37. Absolutely will say a prayer

I will keep you in my thoughts and prayers. Bless you and your family and your nephew and his buddies.

[BeHereNow]

38. Thank you Nashyra.

I just called my brother, his dad, Gulf War 1 vet,
and he too is concerned but said it will take the
mil time to even figure out who was on board.
Cannon fodder are like sheep I guess, hard
to figure out who is who. They are not loved
ones to the neocons, just numbers that are now
blurring together.
Like I've said before- I know that in heaven,
there will be a special screening room.
24-7 coverage of the BFEE in HELL where they belong.
BHN