U.S. Refutes Taliban Claim of Shooting Down Helicopter in Afghanistan

American Forces Press Service

March 18, 2007 – U.S. military officials refuted a Taliban claim that they shot down a U.S. helicopter in Afghanistan's Nuristan province on March 16. The claim is being made on an extremist Web site. U.S. forces have no reports of a downed aircraft and all coalition forces aircraft are accounted for, officials said.

Also in Afghanistan, a United Nations mine-clearing worker was wounded by extremist small-arms fire during an ambush in Afghanistan's Kapisa province yesterday, U.S. military officials reported.

In the same incident, Afghan and coalition forces were also ambushed with rocket-propelled grenade, machine gun and small-arms fire as they were traveling in the opposite direction as the UN vehicle.

After Afghan and coalition forces repelled the attack, they provided aid to the injured worker. No Afghan or coalition forces were injured or killed in the attack, officials said.

(Compiled from Combined Joint Task Force 82 news releases.)

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