BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan, 25 November 2003 — A helicopter carrying US troops has crashed near the main coalition base in Afghanistan killing five and injuring seven others, but the cause was unknown, the US military said yesterday. The MH-53 transport helicopter was taking part in a major operation to hunt Al-Qaeda and Taleban fighters in the country’s mountainous northeast when it came down near Bagram Air Base.

“The service members were supporting Operation Mountain Resolve. The cause of the crash is also unknown and under investigation,” US military spokesman Maj. Richard Sater told reporters at Bagram, 50 kilometers (31 miles) north of Kabul.

“It’s certainly tragic and certainly the biggest casualties of Operation Mountain Resolve to date,” he said, adding that casualty figures were not final.

Afghanistan yesterday offered its condolences over the “tragic event” as US troops began inspecting the mangled wreckage of the aircraft next to a river on the Shomali plain, 15 kilometers (10 miles) northeast of Bagram.

“The Afghan government and the Afghan people are saddened by this tragic event and pay their condolence to the families and friends and colleagues of the soldiers who died,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Omar Samad told reporters. The incident was the first fatal US helicopter crash in Afghanistan since March 24 when six troops were killed in a crash in southeast Ghazni province.

It will come as a heavy blow to the US military, which is reeling from a month of heavy losses in its campaign in Iraq as well as recent casualties in Afghanistan.

Two US-led coalition troops were wounded earlier Sunday when their vehicle drove over an improvised explosive device near the southeast Afghan border base of Shkin, which has been under regular attack from militants. Sater said the MH-53 transport helicopter crashed after taking off from Bagram en route for northeast Kunar and Nuristan provinces to support Operation Mountain Resolve.

The highly classified MH-53 Pave Low, one of the largest and most technologically advanced choppers in the world, is used primarily in special operations and can transport 38 troops.

It is equipped with terrain-avoidance radar, infrared sensors and projected map display, which enable the crew to avoid obstacles at extremely low altitudes. It is protected with armor plating and three machine guns.

The US military has described Operation Mountain Resolve as “the most challenging that we have undertaken” in Afghanistan due to extreme winter conditions in mountains of up to 5,000 meters (16,400 feet).

Hundreds of US 10th Mountain Division soldiers and Afghan troops backed by aircraft are taking part in the offensive launched earlier this month.