Associated Press
BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan — A U.S. helicopter crashed in the rugged mountains of Afghanistan today, killing two Marines and injuring the other five on board. It was the third fatal crash of a U.S. military aircraft in the campaign.
The CH-53E Super Stallion crashed about 40 miles south of Bagram air base after taking off from the former Soviet base outside the capital, Kabul. It was flying with another helicopter to resupply American forces, military officials said.
Marine spokesman 1st Lt. James Jarvis said there was no initial indication of hostile file, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the cause of the crash appeared to be a mechanical failure.
The survivors were flown from the crash site to Bagram and on to another, undisclosed site in Afghanistan for treatment, said Capt. Tom Bryant, a U.S. Army spokesman at Bagram. The Pentagon said their injuries were not life-threatening.
U.S. officials would not say where the helicopter went down, but the flight was thought to be supplying small Special Forces units scouring remote areas for Taliban and al-Qaida fighters still on the run.
The worst single casualty toll for U.S. forces in the Afghanistan campaign was Jan. 9, when all seven Marines — including a Washington state man — aboard a refueling tanker died in a fiery crash in the mountains of southwestern Pakistan. The cause of that crash remains under investigation, though Marines said there was no sign of hostile ground fire.
The only other fatal crash of a U.S. military aircraft since the United States began the war targeting the Taliban and Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida terror network three months ago involved an Army Black Hawk helicopter that crashed in Pakistan Oct. 19, killing two Army Rangers.
Some Marines have begun transferring out of Afghanistan to return to troop ships from which they can be quickly deployed on future missions. The Army’s 101st Airborne Division took over command of a base in the southern city of Kandahar from Marines on Saturday.
Copyright ©2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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