Afghanistan: Sixteen Americans killed in 24 hours

KABUL - Sixteen Americans were killed in the last 24 hours in Afghanistan, among the deadliest for the United States since their arrival in the country.

•     14 of them died in two separate accidents in which three helicopters have crashed, and two in the violence.
  
      In total, 13 soldiers and three American civilians were killed Sunday and Monday.
  
      A helicopter crashed Monday in the Badghis province (west), killing 10 Americans, seven soldiers and three civilians and wounding 26 people (14 Afghan soldiers, 11 soldiers and a U.S. civilian), according to the NATO forces in Afghanistan (ISAF).
  
      The three civilians were working for the DEA, the U.S. anti-drug agency, according to an anonymous diplomatic source.
  
      The cause of the crash was not due to enemy action, according to ISAF.
  
      The activity of the Taliban, mainly related to the production of opium has risen sharply in recent months in Badghis.
  
      The incident allegedly occurred after a US-Afghan operation against drug trafficking, during which "more than a dozen enemy fighters were killed," ISAF said.
  
      The previous similar incident as the deadliest for foreign troops was in June 2005: 16 U.S. soldiers were killed when their helicopter was shot down by insurgents.
  
      A spokesman for the Taliban, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, said that the helicopter which fell in Badghis had been shot by his men. "We shot a Chinook helicopter, killing 24 foreign soldiers," he said.
  
      The Taliban are known to increase the balance of their operations or claim specific actions they have not committed.
  
      Ahmadi also claimed the crash of two U.S. helicopters in the south, still on Monday morning. "In Helmand province, two helicopters of international forces were in the air, we shot one of them that struck the second and both fell," he said.
  
      Four U.S. soldiers were killed and two injured when two helicopters crashed, according to ISAF, which evokes an "accident" causing "a collision in midair.
  
      "It is certain that no hostile fire has been registered," said the NATO force.
  
      Southern Afghanistan is the most dangerous region of the country, where more than 100,000 foreign soldiers, two thirds of Americans, were deployed to fight the Taliban insurgency.
  
      Also, a roadside bomb killed a U.S. soldier Sunday in eastern Afghanistan, while another American serviceman died from his injuries after an attack by insurgents, ISAF said again.
  
      Twenty-four other people including 22 Taliban militants and two Afghan soldiers, died Sunday in other violence in the south and south-west, according to ISAF and the Ministry of Defense of Afghanistan.
  
      The deaths on Sunday and Monday are at 437, including 269 Americans, the number of foreign soldiers killed in Afghanistan since the start of the year, according to the website www.icasualties.org.
  
      The anti-American sentiment is strong in the country, as shown by two events Sunday and Monday in Kabul, held after the release of reports that U.S. soldiers burned a copy of the Koran. These allegations were denied by NATO and Afghan authorities.
  
      2009 is by far the deadliest year since the Taliban were driven from power in late 2001 by the international coalition led by the United States. 294 soldiers of the international military forces were killed in the country in 2008.
  
      
  Ennaharonline/ M. O.