KANDAHAR: A NATO helicopter crashed in troubled southern Afghanistan on Monday, wounding 14 people on board in the second such incident in a week, police and the military said.
Deputy provincial police chief Ghulam Jailani Farahi said the chopper came down in the Atghar district of Zabul province bordering Kandahar, which is the focus of a major US-led offensive against the Taliban.
NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said: "According to initial reports, there were no fatalities in the incident, and all personnel on board have been evacuated to nearby ISAF medical treatment facilities."
"There were 14 people on board. They all had minor injuries," a NATO spokesman told AFP by telephone.
Farahi said nine foreign soldiers, three Afghan troops and one Afghan police officer were among the injured, and said the crash was caused by technical failure.
But Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi claimed insurgents shot down the helicopter and killed all the personnel on board.
ISAF said: "The cause of the incident is under investigation, but there are no indications that it was caused by insurgent action."
Last Tuesday, a Turkish helicopter serving under ISAF came down in the southern province of Wardak, injuring four soldiers.
The insurgency has been intensifying in Afghanistan over the past year with the Taliban gaining a permanent presence in up to 80 percent of the country, according to experts.
NATO and the United States are boosting their deployment to 150,000 in coming months as part of a counter-insurgency strategy designed to end the war quickly and allow American troops to draw down from July 2011.
