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14 Britons killed in Afghanistan
Fourteen British service personnel have died after their aircraft crashed in Afghanistan, the MoD has said.
Twelve RAF personnel, a Royal Marine and an Army soldier were among those who died in the crash in the southern province of Kandahar.
The aircraft belonged to NATO-led international force against the Taleban.
An International Security Assistance Force spokesman said "enemy action had been discounted at this stage".
Earlier, NATO said its forces had launched a major offensive against known hideouts of Taleban insurgents in the Panjwayi district of Kandahar, with the aim of driving them out of the area.
There was no indication of an enemy attack on the plane, which was not a fighter jet, Maj Scott Lundy said.
The crash came as Afghan and Nato troops began a major anti-Taleban drive in the Panjwayi district of Kandahar which has seen months of fighting.
Afghanistan is experiencing its bloodiest period since the fall of the Taleban in 2001. Much of the fighting has been concentrated in the south.
The plane came down about 20 km (12 miles) west of the city of Kandahar, Maj Lundy of the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) said.
It was "supporting a Nato mission. It went off the radar and crashed in an open area in Kandahar."
Nato forces are at the scene but there is no word on how many people were on board. A large Canadian contingent is based in Kandahar province.
A local tribal elder told the Associated Press news agency by phone that the wreckage of the plane was burning in an open field.
"I can see three or four helicopters in the sky, and coalition forces are also arriving in the area," he said.
More
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5308622.stm
The aircraft belonged to NATO-led international force against the Taleban.
An International Security Assistance Force spokesman said "enemy action had been discounted at this stage".
Earlier, NATO said its forces had launched a major offensive against known hideouts of Taleban insurgents in the Panjwayi district of Kandahar, with the aim of driving them out of the area.
There was no indication of an enemy attack on the plane, which was not a fighter jet, Maj Scott Lundy said.
The crash came as Afghan and Nato troops began a major anti-Taleban drive in the Panjwayi district of Kandahar which has seen months of fighting.
Afghanistan is experiencing its bloodiest period since the fall of the Taleban in 2001. Much of the fighting has been concentrated in the south.
The plane came down about 20 km (12 miles) west of the city of Kandahar, Maj Lundy of the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) said.
It was "supporting a Nato mission. It went off the radar and crashed in an open area in Kandahar."
Nato forces are at the scene but there is no word on how many people were on board. A large Canadian contingent is based in Kandahar province.
A local tribal elder told the Associated Press news agency by phone that the wreckage of the plane was burning in an open field.
"I can see three or four helicopters in the sky, and coalition forces are also arriving in the area," he said.
More
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5308622.stm
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IMC Network
14 British troops die in Afghan air crash
· Worst military disaster in war on terror
· MoD says tragedy was an accident
David Smith, Mark Townsend and Peter Beaumont
Sunday September 3, 2006
The Observer
The British forces suffered their most deadly day since the war on terror began when a Nimrod surveillance aircraft from RAF Kinloss in Scotland crashed yesterday while supporting Nato ground operations in Afghanistan, killing all 14 servicemen on board.
Twelve RAF personnel, a Royal Marine and a soldier were among those who died when the aircraft came down in Kandahar province during an operation against Taliban insurgents.
The aircraft, which was due for replacement, was flying out of Oman, and is one of 12 Nimrods in service. It is equipped with some of the RAF's most secret and sophisticated communications, surveillance and communications equipment.
More
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1863822,00.html
The aircraft was thought to have come down owing to a technical fault at 1.30pm UK time. The deaths of the 12 RAF personnel, one Royal Marine and one soldier on board bring to 36 the number of British military who have died in the country. Some 15 have been killed in combat, seven in the past four weeks.
The Secretary of State for Defence, Des Browne, said: "At this stage all the indications are that this was a terrible accident and not the result of hostile action." However, the aircraft came down in an area close to where Nato forces were fighting insurgents.
The aircraft involved was a Nimrod MR2, a maritime patrol craft which can hold up to 25 and the mainstay of the RAF's patrol fleet since the 1970s, when it replaced the Shackleton.
A spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force, for which the aircraft was on a mission when it crashed, said enemy action had been discounted at this stage. A force spokesman, Major Scott Lundy, said he had heard the Taliban were claiming to have shot the aircraft down but he said that was "absolutely false".
The Taliban, fighting to oust foreign forces from Afghanistan, invariably claim to have shot down aircraft that foreign forces and the government say came down accidentally.
An indication that the cause of the crash was an accident rather than a missile was that, shortly before the aircraft disappeared, it made an emergency call. "It went off the radar and crashed in an open area in Kandahar," said Major Lundy. "There was no indication of an enemy attack."
More
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article1325419.ece