Seven NATO Soldiers Die in Afghan Helicopter Crash

May 31 (Bloomberg) -- Seven NATO soldiers died when a Chinook helicopter went down late yesterday in Afghanistan's Helmand province, one of the country's most volatile regions where coalition forces are battling Taliban rebels.

Troops sent to the crash site were attacked by insurgents and called in an air strike ``to eliminate the enemy threat,'' the North Atlantic Treaty Organization said in an e-mailed statement today.

The cause of the crash, which killed the crew of five and two military passengers, is being investigated, NATO said. The Taliban said they shot down the helicopter, Associated Press reported. The news agency cited an unidentified U.S. military official as saying that five of the dead were American soldiers.

NATO is leading international efforts to stabilize Afghanistan under President Hamid Karzai's government and rebuild infrastructure destroyed by almost three decades of civil war and conflict. The helicopter came down near Kajaki in the north of the province where engineers are repairing a hydroelectric dam so it can provide electricity for the city of Kandahar.

The governments of Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan have traded blame for failing to control the insurgency.

Karzai says President Pervez Musharraf must do more to stop insurgents training and rearming in Pakistan's tribal regions. Musharraf points to the 80,000 soldiers his government has deployed in the border region and says Afghanistan must step up efforts to secure its side of the mountainous 2,430-kilometer (1,510-mile) frontier.

Boost Cooperation

The two presidents agreed to boost cooperation in the fight against terrorism when they met last month in the Turkish city of Ankara. Their foreign ministers continued the discussions yesterday in Potsdam, Germany, at a meeting of the Group of Eight industrialized nations.

Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta and his Pakistani counterpart Kurshid Kasuri renewed the ``commitment to strengthen cooperation and dialogue between their countries and governments at all levels,'' AP reported, citing a statement.

NATO has about 37,000 soldiers in Afghanistan from 37 countries, including 15,000 U.S. personnel. The U.S. has an additional 10,000 soldiers in the country carrying out counter- terrorism operations.

Several Chinook helicopters have crashed in Afghanistan in the past two years. A CH-47 Chinook came down in southern Zabul province in February because of mechanical failure, killing eight U.S. soldiers.

In May 2006, a Chinook crashed while attempting a nighttime landing in eastern Kunar province, killing 10 U.S. military personnel. Sixteen U.S. Navy Seals were killed in June 2005 when insurgents shot down a Chinook in Kunar with a rocket-propelled grenade.