Afghan helicopter crash kills 7 U.S. troops

KABUL -- A U.S. military helicopter crashed during a firefight with insurgents Thursday in a remote area of southern Afghanistan, killing seven Americans and four Afghans in one of the deadliest air disasters of a war now into its second decade. The Taliban claimed they gunned down the Black Hawk.

American service personnel are dying at a rate of about one a day this year, despite a drawdown of troops and dwindling attention on the home front. The death rate has risen with the summer fighting season in full gear and a rash of attacks by Afghan security forces on their foreign trainers and partners.

NATO forces said they could not confirm what caused yesterday's crash and stressed that it was still being investigated. The Black Hawk was operating in support of an assault on the ground but initial indications were that it was not shot down, according to U.S. officials who asked anonymity because the investigation was continuing.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said in a phone call with The Associated Press that insurgent fighters struck the helicopter in Kandahar province. He declined to give details.

The Kandahar provincial government backed the Taliban claim, saying the helicopter was shot down in Shah Wali Kot district, a rural area north of Kandahar city where insurgents move freely and regularly launch attacks. Spokesman Ahmad Jawed Faisal did not provide details or say how the province had confirmed the information.

Kandahar is a traditional Taliban stronghold and the spiritual birthplace of the hard-line Islamist movement, which ruled Afghanistan before being ousted in 2001 by the U.S.-led alliance for sheltering al-Qaida's leaders.

Less than a week ago, six American service members were gunned down, apparently by two members of the Afghan security forces they were training to take over the fight against the insurgency.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said Thursday that the United States is prioritizing efforts to prevent more of these types of attacks.