US chopper crash kills 5

The CH-47 chopper was supporting military operations when it went down near Daychopan district in southern Zabul province, a military statement said. US ground forces had reached the crash scene and were providing security for recovery operations.

"There is no indication at this time that this is a result of hostile fire," US military spokesman Lt. Col. Jerry O'Hara told The Associated Press. "There are no survivors."

A separate statement said all five crew members had been killed.

Gulab Shah, a spokesman for Zabul's governor, said there had been no fighting in the area at the time of the crash. He said he had been told by US forces in the region that the chopper crashed while returning to a US base after dropping off troops for a raid on a suspected militant target.

Meanwhile, three suspected Taliban insurgents were killed when a bomb they were planting in restive southern Afghanistan detonated prematurely, police said Sunday.

The three had been planting the bomb late Saturday on a road in Helmand province to target a police patrol, provincial police chief Abdul Rehman Jan told AFP.