RAF jet crashes in Afghanistan as four NATO troops killed

Britain has around 9,000 troops in Afghanistan

By Nasrat Shoaib (AFP)
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — A British fighter jet crashed in Afghanistan on Monday injuring two pilots, while four NATO troops were killed in a bomb blast as foreign casualties soar in the war-torn country.

The crash and the unrelated killing of a British soldier in a bomb attack Sunday -- bringing to 17 the number killed so far this month -- was likely to spark renewed political debate in London over Britain's role in the conflict.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) meanwhile said that four soldiers were killed in a bomb blast Monday in the east of the country, but gave no details on their nationalities.


Western military casualties have hit record levels in Afghanistan as foreign governments scramble extra troops to the war-torn nation hoping to ease an increasingly virulent Taliban insurgency ahead of elections on August 20.

Mohammad Aslam Yar, a spokesman for the southern Kandahar air base, said an ISAF fighter jet crashed early Monday at the airfield, which is at the biggest military base in the south, a Taliban stronghold.

"There were two pilots who ejected and were taken to a military hospital inside the base for treatment. Apart from that there are no other casualties. No enemy fire was involved," Yar told AFP.

A defence ministry spokeswoman in London told AFP the jet was a Royal Air Force Tornado GR4, but ruled out insurgent activity as the cause of the crash. "Their next of kin have been told that they have been injured. The assessment's going on at the hospital in the base," the spokeswoman said.

On Sunday, a civilian-contracted helicopter crashed on take-off at Kandahar airbase, killing 16 civilians. On Saturday, two US crew were killed when their jet went down in the southeastern province of Ghazni, a Taliban hotbed.

Officials denied that either crash was caused by enemy fire, although Taliban insurgents claimed responsibility for another helicopter crash that killed seven people last Tuesday in the southern province of Helmand.

Air traffic has increased recently in the south with the arrival of thousands of extra Western troops on a mission to stabilise the country with the Taliban insurgency at its deadliest since the 2001 US-led invasion.

Military casualties have surged in recent weeks as about 4,000 US Marines and thousands of British and Afghan forces battle their way into Taliban strongholds in the south in separate assaults launched in June and July.

The defence ministry in London confirmed that a British soldier from The 2nd Battalion the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers was killed by an explosion while on a foot patrol Sunday in Helmand.

The death brings to 186 the number of British troops who have died in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion. Of these, at least 154 were killed in hostile action and 17 have been killed this month.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has faced stinging criticism from the main opposition party that his government is denying troops vital resources, after Britain suffered eight deaths within 24 hours in Afghanistan last week.

There are about 90,000 foreign troops, mainly US, British and Canadian, deployed in Afghanistan to help Kabul fight the Taliban insurgency.

According to the independent www.icasualties-org website, which tracks military casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan, around 208 foreign soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan this year without counting the ISAF deaths Monday.

In other unrest, 11 civilians were killed and two others wounded Sunday when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb planted by insurgents in southwestern Farah province, deputy provincial governor Mohammad Yunus Rasouli told AFP.

In northern Kunduz province, two civilians were killed and two others wounded Sunday when German and local forces opened fire on a car that failed to slow down at a checkpoint, a press release from the German forces said.