OMEN
09-03-2006, 10:30 PM
KANDAHAR: An investigation is under way after a British spy plane crashed in Afghanistan, killing 14 military personnel in Britain's worst single loss in five years in the country.
The Ministry of Defence said a board of inquiry had been set up to probe the cause of the crash.
"We have secured the site and the investigation has begun," Defence Secretary Des Browne said in a television interview.
The Royal Air Force Nimrod MR2 aircraft was supporting the NATO mission in the country when it went down, apparently due to a technical problem, in the southern province of Kandahar.
The dead included 12 Royal Air Force personnel, a Royal Marine and an army soldier. The plane was based at RAF Kinloss air force base in Scotland.
The RAF's Nimrod planes carry sophisticated reconnaissance and communications equipment enabling them to relay messages from troops on the ground.
"British forces are engaged in a vital and dangerous mission in Afghanistan and this terrible event starkly reminds us of the risk that they face daily," Prime Minister Tony Blair said in a statement.
Rejecting as a lie claims by Taliban guerrillas to have shot down the aircraft, Defence Secretary Browne said: "The indications...suggest that this has been a dreadful, tragic accident."
Browne said the morale of British soldiers in Afghanistan was "holding up" despite recent deaths and he defended the British mission there.
"The developed world can't afford to allow Afghanistan to become a training ground for terrorists again," he said.
SEVERE CASUALTIES
The crash was Britain's worst single loss during its current deployment in Afghanistan and caps a month in which British forces in the country have suffered severe casualties.
Military analysts said the crash would revive the political debate in Britain about the country's role in Afghanistan and whether its forces are over-stretched given they are also working flat out in Iraq.
The last significant British military crash was in January 2005 when a C130 Hercules transport plane was brought down by hostile fire in Iraq, killing nine Britons and one Australian.
NATO said in a statement the British plane crashed after declaring a technical problem.
A NATO force spokesman, Major Scott Lundy, rejected Taliban claims to have shot down the British aircraft as "absolutely false". "It went off the radar and crashed," he said.
The crash came at a time when the Taliban and other insurgent and criminal groups have stepped up attacks on Afghan and foreign forces, plunging the country into its bloodiest period since the Taliban were toppled in late 2001.
On Saturday, suspected Taliban fighters assassinated a senior Afghan police officer, his three bodyguards and a female relative, leaving only the woman's three-month-old baby alive.
Suspected Taliban also assassinated a district police chief in neighbouring Nimroz province, killing three of his bodyguards. Three attackers were also killed, police said.
Britain has faced unexpectedly fierce resistance from Taliban fighters since sending the first large foreign force to the southern province of Helmand this year as part of an expanding NATO peacekeeping mission.
The Taliban, fighting to oust foreign forces, invariably claim to have shot down aircraft that foreign forces and the government say came down accidentally.
The last time the insurgents were known to have brought an aircraft down was last year when they hit a US military helicopter with a rocket-propelled grenade during a battle in the eastern province of Kunar.
The crash brings to 36 the number of British forces personnel who have died while serving in Afghanistan since November 2001.
Reuters
The Ministry of Defence said a board of inquiry had been set up to probe the cause of the crash.
"We have secured the site and the investigation has begun," Defence Secretary Des Browne said in a television interview.
The Royal Air Force Nimrod MR2 aircraft was supporting the NATO mission in the country when it went down, apparently due to a technical problem, in the southern province of Kandahar.
The dead included 12 Royal Air Force personnel, a Royal Marine and an army soldier. The plane was based at RAF Kinloss air force base in Scotland.
The RAF's Nimrod planes carry sophisticated reconnaissance and communications equipment enabling them to relay messages from troops on the ground.
"British forces are engaged in a vital and dangerous mission in Afghanistan and this terrible event starkly reminds us of the risk that they face daily," Prime Minister Tony Blair said in a statement.
Rejecting as a lie claims by Taliban guerrillas to have shot down the aircraft, Defence Secretary Browne said: "The indications...suggest that this has been a dreadful, tragic accident."
Browne said the morale of British soldiers in Afghanistan was "holding up" despite recent deaths and he defended the British mission there.
"The developed world can't afford to allow Afghanistan to become a training ground for terrorists again," he said.
SEVERE CASUALTIES
The crash was Britain's worst single loss during its current deployment in Afghanistan and caps a month in which British forces in the country have suffered severe casualties.
Military analysts said the crash would revive the political debate in Britain about the country's role in Afghanistan and whether its forces are over-stretched given they are also working flat out in Iraq.
The last significant British military crash was in January 2005 when a C130 Hercules transport plane was brought down by hostile fire in Iraq, killing nine Britons and one Australian.
NATO said in a statement the British plane crashed after declaring a technical problem.
A NATO force spokesman, Major Scott Lundy, rejected Taliban claims to have shot down the British aircraft as "absolutely false". "It went off the radar and crashed," he said.
The crash came at a time when the Taliban and other insurgent and criminal groups have stepped up attacks on Afghan and foreign forces, plunging the country into its bloodiest period since the Taliban were toppled in late 2001.
On Saturday, suspected Taliban fighters assassinated a senior Afghan police officer, his three bodyguards and a female relative, leaving only the woman's three-month-old baby alive.
Suspected Taliban also assassinated a district police chief in neighbouring Nimroz province, killing three of his bodyguards. Three attackers were also killed, police said.
Britain has faced unexpectedly fierce resistance from Taliban fighters since sending the first large foreign force to the southern province of Helmand this year as part of an expanding NATO peacekeeping mission.
The Taliban, fighting to oust foreign forces, invariably claim to have shot down aircraft that foreign forces and the government say came down accidentally.
The last time the insurgents were known to have brought an aircraft down was last year when they hit a US military helicopter with a rocket-propelled grenade during a battle in the eastern province of Kunar.
The crash brings to 36 the number of British forces personnel who have died while serving in Afghanistan since November 2001.
Reuters