FOURTEEN Americans died as three helicopters crashed in Afghanistan yesterday, the deadliest day for the US mission in more than four years.
The deaths came as President Barack Obama prepared to meet his national security team for a sixth full-scale conference on the future of the troubled war.
In the deadliest crash, a helicopter went down in the west of the country after leaving the
scene of a firefight, killing ten Americans – seven troops and three agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
Eleven American troops, one US civilian and 14 Afghans were also injured.
In a separate incident, two US Marine helicopters – one UH-1 and an AH-1 Cobra – collided in flight before sunrise over the southern province of Helmand, killing four American troops and wounding two more.
It was the heaviest single-day loss of life since 28 June, 2005, when 16 US troops on a special forces helicopter died after their MH-47 Chinook helicopter was shot down by insurgents.
The casualties also mark the first DEA deaths in Afghanistan since it began operations there in 2005.
US authorities have ruled out hostile fire in the collision but have not given a cause for the other fatal crash in the west.
Taleban spokesman Qari Yusuf Ahmedi claimed Taleban fighters shot down a helicopter in the Darabam district of the north-west Badghis province.
It was impossible to verify the claim and unclear if he was referring to the same incident.
Military spokeswoman Elizabeth Mathias said hostile fire was unlikely because the troops were not receiving fire when the helicopter took off.
Nato said the helicopter was returning from a joint operation that targeted insurgents involved in "narcotics trafficking in western Afghanistan".
"During the operation, insurgent forces engaged the joint force and more than a dozen enemy fighters were killed in the ensuing firefight," a Nato statement said.
Afghanistan is the world's largest producer of opium – the raw ingredient in heroin – and the illicit drug trade is a major source of funding for insurgent groups.
US forces also reported the death of two other American troops a day earlier: one in a bomb attack in the east, and another who died of wounds sustained in an insurgent attack in the same region.
The deaths bring to at least 46 the number of US service personnel who have been killed in October.
This has been the deadliest year for international and US forces since the 2001 invasion to oust the Taleban. Fighting reached a peak around the presidential vote in August.
The Obama administration is debating whether to send tens of thousands more troops to the country, while the Afghan government is rushing to hold a 7 November run-off election between president Hamid Karzai and challenger Abdullah Abdullah after it was determined that the August result depended on fraudulent votes.
Mr Karzai yesterday rejected a demand from his rival to sack the country's top election official.
Mr Abdullah demanded that the head of the Independent Election Commission be sacked because he was biased towards the incumbent. Mr Abdullah also wanted three cabinet ministers suspended until the election was completed.
