17 Spanish troops die in Afghan chopper crash

Afghan army commander Abdul Wahab Walizada, whose troops are providing security in the area near Herat, said the aircraft came too close to each other while flying and their rotor blades collided.

But Maj. Andrew Elmes, a spokesman for Nato's International Security Assistance Force in Kabul, said it was too early to know the cause, but it was believed to have been an accident and not due to rebel activity. He said earlier that mechanical failure may have been to blame.

One of the helicopters belonging to the international security force crashed in the desert near Herat, killing 17 Spanish troops the first troops from Spain to be killed in Afghanistan, officials said.

The second helicopter made an emergency landing in the same area and an unspecified number of troops on board were believed to be injured, Elmes said, adding that rescuers had reached the site to recover the dead and wounded.

The crash came less than two months after suspected insurgents shot down a US military Chinook helicopter in eastern Kunar province a hotbed for Taliban and al-Qaeda insurgents near the border with Pakistan. All 16 US forces on board were killed.

In Madrid, a Spanish Defence Ministry official, who asked not to be named in compliance with his department's policy, said 12 soldiers and five crew died in Tuesday's crash, but the cause was unknown.

Elmes declined to comment on the nationality of the troops or how many casualties there were, but Herat province is largely free of violence by Taliban-led rebels.

"We do not think the helicopter crashed because of enemy activity. We think it was an accident," he said. "The second helicopter landed heavily. There are survivors from that helicopter."

He said both choppers were on a training mission to support crucial Sept. 18 legislative elections the next major step toward democracy for Afghanistan after more than two decades of war and civil strife.

Spain has about 800 troops in Afghanistan assisting the Nato-led security force.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero broke off his vacation in the Canary Islands to return to Madrid and meet with defence ministry officials, his office said.

The crash was the second major deadly incident involving Spanish troops deployed in Afghanistan. In May 2003, 62 Spanish peacekeepers returning home from Afghanistan died when their Russian-built YAK-42 plane crashed near Trabzon in northwest Turkey. Thirteen Ukrainian and Belarusian crew members of the aircraft also died.