Top Afghan general dies in helicopter crash

[AbuUsama]

Top Afghan general dies in helicopter crash
Twelve soldiers are also killed. Afghan officials blame the weather, but Taliban insurgents say they brought down the chopper.
By Laura King
7:21 AM PST, January 15, 2009

Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan -- A helicopter carrying one of Afghanistan's most senior army generals and 12 soldiers crashed in bad weather today, killing all aboard, the army said.

Taliban insurgents claimed to have downed the Russian-made chopper in western Afghanistan, but the Afghan military said in a statement that poor visibility caused the craft to slam into a jagged mountainside.

Much of Afghanistan is enveloped in rain and snow, which has been hampering military transport as well as civilian flights. Afghanistan's military relies largely on a poorly maintained fleet of aging Russian aircraft.

It was one of the largest losses of life in a single incident that the Afghan army has suffered in recent years. The general who died, Fazl Ahmad Sayar, was one of four regional commanders, in charge of Afghan army operations in the west of the country.

The Mi-17 helicopter went down in the rugged Adraskan district of Herat province, the Afghan defense ministry said in a statement. All the bodies were recovered, it said.

The Afghan military said there were no insurgents operating in the area, but Taliban spokesman Qari Yousaf Ahmadi said militants had shot down the chopper.

Also Thursday, British authorities announced the deaths of two servicemen a day earlier in southern Afghanistan. The two, a soldier and a Royal Marine, were killed in an explosion in Helmand province, one of the main centers of the insurgency.

Many of up to 30,000 U.S. troops arriving in Afghanistan in coming months will be deployed in the south, once the Taliban movement's home base.

With violence at its highest level since the war began seven years ago, the government of President Hamid Karzai has said it is willing to talk with Taliban fighters who are willing to lay down their arms. Saudi Arabia has attempted in recent months to broker indirect talks between the government and Taliban-connected elements.

In an apparent continuation of that effort, the head of Saudi intelligence, Prince Mugrin bin Abdul Aziz Al- Saud, met with Karzai and other senior officials today, the government said.

Source : http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...,4862445.story

[Spezalai Deen]

13 dead in Afghan army chopper crash: militaryAfghan army general among victims

By Mohammad Reza, AFPJanuary 15, 2009



HERAT, Afghanistan - An Afghan army helicopter crashed in western Afghanistan Thursday, killing all 13 on board including a top general in the force’s worst such incident since the end of Taliban rule, officials said.

The helicopter, carrying a delegation of senior Afghan National Army (ANA) officers, came down in bad weather in the Adraskan district of Herat province, defence officials said.

"The commander of Zafar military corps, General Fazel Ahmad Sayar, together with 12 other ANA members, were on their way from Herat to Farah province when due to bad weather their helicopter crashed," the defence ministry said.

"All those on board were martyred," it said in a statement.
Ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi told AFP it was the worst such crash for the fledgling Afghan army since the ouster of the Taliban in late 2001.

The delegation had been en route to neighbouring Farah province to visit an army base, defence officials said. The crash site was about 80 kilometres south of Herat city.

Basir Khan Ghori, spokesman for the 207th Zafar (Success) military corps, said the helicopter had crashed into a mountain in poor weather, and confirmed the general’s death.

"There is very thick cloud cover and fog in the area where the crash took place," Ghori told AFP. "The helicopter hit a mountain peak. All the bodies were burnt."

But another defence ministry official said on condition of anonymity that it was not clear if the Russian-designed Mi-17 chopper crashed because of the weather or if it was brought down by "enemy fire."
Besides the commander, the dead included the corps operations chief, its telecommunications chief, five bodyguards, four crew and the commander’s chief of staff, he said.

Ghori said the bodies had all been recovered and transported to Herat city.

Sayar, in his 50s, was a parachute specialist, he said.
The international forces working with the Afghan army to fight an insurgency led by Taliban militants have suffered several deadly helicopter crashes, some with higher tolls.

The extremist movement regularly claims to have caused aircraft to crash, including with rocket-propelled grenades, but this has only been confirmed in a few cases.

Afghanistan’s army was destroyed in a civil war in the 1990s and is being rebuilt largely with aid and training from the United States, with five corps now established across the country.

The development of the army is considered a priority in efforts to fight the insurgency led by the Taliban, who were in government between 1996 and 2001.

The force now numbers roughly 80,000 men with plans for its expansion to 134,000 by 2012.

The once-proud Soviet-trained air force is also being rebuilt and currently flies about 90 per cent of the Afghan army’s requirements, with the international forces helping out with the remainder, according to U.S. officials.

The air force has about 23 Mi17 helicopters and eight Antonov cargo planes.

It bought 19 C-27A cargo planes in 2008 and was looking to buy more helicopters, with a final number of 59 envisaged, they said.