Militants shot down a NATO helicopter in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing four soldiers and bringing to 23 the number of foreign troops killed in escalating violence so far this week.
The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) helicopter came down in Helmand province, a stronghold of Taliban fighting to topple the Western-backed government and evict the 130,000 US-led foreign troops in Afghanistan.
"Four ISAF service members were killed in the crash," a military spokesman said. "The helicopter was brought down by hostile fire," he added.
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Yousuf Ahmadi, a Taliban spokesman, telephoned AFP from an undisclosed location to claim responsibility for the incident.
"We brought it down with a rocket. It crashed in the Sangin district bazaar today at around 10:00 am (0530 GMT)," Ahmadi said.
According to an AFP tally based on the independent website icasualties.org, 253 foreign soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan so far this year. Last year was the deadliest yet, with 520 killed.
Much of southern Afghanistan is troubled by a Taliban insurgency, in its deadliest phase since early last year, and where US and NATO troops are building up a campaign to flush the Taliban from Kandahar city.
The helicopter crash brought to five the number of NATO soldiers killed in the south on Wednesday, after the military announced that a separate soldier had been killed by an improvised bomb explosion, the Taliban weapon of choice.
Twenty-three NATO soldiers have died since Sunday, including 10 on Monday when US-led forces in Afghanistan encountered their deadliest day in combat in two years, with seven Americans, two Australians and a French soldier killed.
Despite the mounting casualties, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday he expected to see signs of progress in the flagship counter-insurgency strategy "by the end of the year" in the war.
