Chopper crashes in Afghanistan kill 14 Americans: NATO

The deaths made Monday one of the deadliest single days in Afghanistan for foreign civilian and military personnel working to help rebuild the country and defeat a Taliban insurgency, eight years after the U.S.-led invasion.

One helicopter crashed in western Afghanistan due to "unconfirmed reasons," NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a statement, adding: "The cause is not believed to be from enemy action."

Ten Americans were killed and 26 other people wounded in the incident, but the military released neither the type of helicopter involved nor immediately specified whether all the casualties had been on board.

"Seven U.S. service members and three U.S. civilians were killed," ISAF said.

"Those injured include 14 Afghan service members, 11 U.S. service members and one U.S. civilian," it added.

An ISAF official earlier told AFP on condition of anonymity that the crash happened in Badghis province, an area where Taliban activity, much of it related to opium production, has been escalating in recent months.

Another four U.S. service members were killed and two other soldiers wounded in an apparent mid-air collision between two helicopters in southern Afghanistan, NATO said in an earlier statement.

Helicopters are a key asset in transporting military and cargo for foreign forces given Afghanistan's rugged terrain and the presence of Taliban insurgents.

Colonel Wayne Shanks, of the U.S. Army, said that investigations into both incidents were being hampered by "combat conditions".

"This is where we see the nexus between the insurgency and the narcotics trade," he said, adding that a dozen insurgents were killed in the operation that the chopper brigade was involved in out west.

"These were bad guys doing bad things to the people of Afghanistan," he said.

NATO and U.S. troops are this year suffering the highest fatality rates since the deployment of foreign troops to Afghanistan in 2001.

Monday's deaths bring the total toll for the year to 435, according to an AFP tally based on the count by the independent icasualties.org website, which keeps a running tally.

About half of this year's casualties have been U.S. nationals.

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