Helicopter Crash Kills 9 Afghan Troops

World

March 18th, 7:30am

Asharq Al-Awsat

Security personnel inspect the site of a bomb attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, March 15, 2021. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

A helicopter crash overnight has taken the lives of at least nine military personnel in central Afghanistan, the defense ministry said Thursday. In a statement, it said that four crew members of the MI-17 helicopter along with five security personnel were killed in the crash, in the volatile Behsud district of Maidan Wradak province. It gave no further detail except to say that investigations were ongoing. Mohibullah Sharifi, the spokesman for the provincial governor, confirmed the helicopter crash, but did not provide further details. Separately Thursday, a bombing killed four state employees commuting in a minibus in the capital Kabul, police said. Ferdaws Faramarz, spokesman for the Kabul police chief, said a woman was among the dead and nine other people were wounded in the attack in the city's north. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the Kabul attack, but government employees have been targeted before. On Monday, another bombing on a minibus carrying state workers in Kabul killed three women and a 3-year-old child, and wounded 13 others, according to security officials.

from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/2867066/helicopter-crash-kills-9-afghan-troops