14 American Terrorists Killed After Helicopters Are Shot Down in Afghanistan

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KABUL – A helicopter crash and separate collision involving two other
choppers killed 14 Americans on Monday in one of the deadliest days for
U.S. troops in the war in Afghanistan, the U.S. military said.

In the first crash, a helicopter went down in the west of the country
after leaving the scene of a firefight with insurgents, killing 10
Americans — seven troops and three civilians working for the government.
Eleven American troops, one U.S. civilian and 14 Afghans were also
injured.

In a separate incident in the south, two other U.S. choppers collided
while in flight, killing four American troops and wounding two more, the
military said.

U.S. authorities have ruled out hostile fire in the collision but have
not given a cause for the other fatal crash in the west. Taliban
spokesman Qari Yusuf Ahmedi claimed Taliban fighters shot down a
helicopter in northwest Badghis province's Darabam district. It was
impossible to verify the claim and unclear if he was referring to the
same incident.

U.S. 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 U.S. troops who have been killed in
October.

The deaths come as U.S. officials debate whether to send tens of
thousands more troops to the country and the Afghan government scrambles
to organize a Nov. 7 runoff election between President Hamid Karzai and
challenger Abdullah Abdullah from an August vote that was sullied by
massive ballot-rigging. President Barack Obama's administration is
hoping the runoff will produce a legitimate government. Another flawed
election would cast doubt on the wisdom of sending more troops to
support a weak government tainted by fraud.

In Washington, Obama was to meet with his national security team Monday
in what was to be the sixth full-scale Afghanistan conference in the
White House Situation Room.

Also Monday, Abdullah called for election commission chairman Azizullah
Lodin to be replaced within five days, saying he has "no credibility."

Lodin has denied accusations he is biased in favor of Karzai, and the
election commission's spokesman has already said Lodin cannot be
replaced by either side.

Abdullah made the demand in a news conference during which he spelled
out a list of what he said were "minimum conditions" for holding a fair
second round of voting, including the firing of any workers implicated
in fraud and the suspension of several ministers he said had campaigned
for Karzai in the first round before the official campaigning period
began.

Abdullah did not say what would happen if his demands were not met. "I
reserve my reaction if we are faced with that unfortunate situation," he
said.

This has been the deadliest year for international and U.S. forces since
the 2001 invasion to oust the Taliban. Fighting spiked around the
presidential vote in August, and 51 U.S. soldiers died that month — the
deadliest for American forces in the eight-year war.

Earlier this month, insurgents killed eight American troops in an attack
on a pair of isolated U.S. outposts in the eastern village of Kamdesh
near the Pakistan border. That was the heaviest U.S. loss of life in a
single battle since July 2008, when nine American soldiers were killed
in a raid on an outpost in Wanat in the same province.

"These separate tragedies today underscore the risks our forces and our
partners face every day," Col. Wayne Shanks, a spokesman for the
NATO-led coalition, said Monday. "Each and every death is a tremendous
loss for the family and friends of each service member and civilian. Our
grief is compounded when we have such a significant loss on one day."

U.S. military spokeswoman Elizabeth Mathias said coalition forces had
launched an operation to recover the wreckage of the helicopter that was
downed in the west.

She said the aircraft was leaving the site of a joint operation with
Afghan forces when it went down.

The joint force had "searched a suspected compound believed to harbor
insurgents conducting activities related to narcotics trafficking in
western Afghanistan," NATO said in a statement. "During the operation,
insurgent forces engaged the joint force and more than a dozen enemy
fighters were killed in the ensuing firefight."

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 Taliban and other insurgent groups.

On Sunday, Karzai and Abdullah both ruled out a power-sharing deal
before the runoff, saying the second round of balloting must be held as
planned to bolster democracy in this war-ravaged country.

Meanwhile, security forces in Kabul fired automatic rifles into the air
for a second day Monday to contain hundreds of stone-throwing university
students angered over the alleged desecration of Islam's holy book, the
Quran, by U.S. troops during an operation two weeks ago in Wardak
province. Fire trucks were also brought in to push back protesters with
water cannons. Police said several officers were injured in the mayhem.

U.S. and Afghan authorities have denied any such desecration and insist
that the Taliban are spreading the rumor to stir up public anger. The
rumor has sparked similar protests in Wardak and Khost provinces.

On Sunday, the students in the capital burned Obama in effigy and
chanted slogans such as "down with Americans, down with Israel" as they
marched from Kabul University to the parliament building, where riot
police turned them back.
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