Kandahar (Afghanistan): An aircraft crashed in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, killing 14 British troops, in the worst loss of life for the NATO-led security force since it began its mission to tame insurgents in the volatile region a month ago.
A purported Taliban spokesman claimed its militia shot the plane down in Kandahar province with a Stinger missile, but British Defense Secretary Des Browne said the crash appeared to be ''a terrible accident.''
The dead included 12 Royal Air Force personnel, a Royal Marine and an army soldier, the British Defense Ministry said. The type of aircraft involved was not immediately identified.
Abdul Manan, a witness in Chalaghor village in Kandahar province, said the plane crashed about 100 meters (yards) from his home, and pieces of wreckage landed nearby.
He reported seeing a small fire at the back of the plane before it hit the earth with a huge explosion that ''shook the whole village.''
Afghan and NATO forces were conducting a major military operation against insurgents Saturday in Panjwayi district where Chalaghor village is located, but Manan said the scene of the fighting was centered about 10 kilometers (six miles) from the village.
The ''aircraft was supporting a NATO mission. It went off the radar and crashed in an open area in Kandahar,'' said Maj. Scott Lundy, spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, that took command of security in southern Afghanistan on August 1.
Lundy said ''there was no indication of an enemy attack.'' The crash happened about 20 kilometers (12 miles) west of the city of Kandahar, he said.
Manan said young men in the village wanted to go closer but ‘American’ helicopters landed around the burning plane wreckage and kept onlookers away.
Manan said he could see American soldiers picking up body parts.
Shortly after the crash, a purported spokesman for the Taliban, Abdul Khaliq, claimed responsibility, but it was impossible to independently verify the claim.
''We used a Stinger missile to shoot down the aircraft,'' he said.
In London, Browne said that ''at this stage all the indications are that this was a terrible accident and not the result of hostile action.''
''I know that the people of Britain will join me in sending our deep condolences to the loved ones of those who have lost their lives, and to the British military as it deals with the loss of friends and comrades,'' he said.
Britain has nearly 4,000 troops deployed in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province, which neighbors Kandahar, as part of the NATO-led force.
Before Saturday, 22 British soldiers had died in the country since November 2001, 17 of them in March when the NATO force moved into Helmand, the hub of Afghanistan's world-leading heroin industry.
Kandahar was once the stronghold of Afghanistan's former Taliban regime, which was ousted by a US-led invasion following the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. Its militant supporters have stepped up attacks this year, sparking the deadliest violence in five years.
Haji Eisamuddin, a local tribal elder, said by phone that the wreckage of the plane was burning in an open field, and that coalition forces had started arriving at the scene.
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