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UK probes fatal helicopter crash in Afghanistan

360378_Lynx-helicopter

Britain says an investigation has been launched into a recent deadly helicopter crash in Afghanistan’s Kandahar Province that killed five UK soldiers.

The British Ministry of Defense (MoD) said on Sunday that it had begun probing the deadly incident of the Lynx helicopter a day earlier.

The Defense Ministry also identified the five troopers killed in the incident, saying the men died as the helicopter came down during a routine flight near Kandahar’s airbase.

In addition, the ministry denied the claim by the Taliban that they shot down the aircraft, stating instead that technical issues were behind the crash.

A spokeswoman of the MoD said that she could not go into further details regarding the incident and that “it is not known how long the investigation might last or when investigators will deliver their report.”

British Prime Minister David Cameron has described the deadly crash as a “terrible tragedy.”

The incident is the third single biggest loss of life for the UK military forces in Afghanistan. The loss brought the total number of British fatalities to 453 since the US-led war in Afghanistan began in 2001.

The helicopter crash took place on April 26 just hours after a US drone went down in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Kunar. Taliban militants again claimed they had shot down the drone.

The incidents come at a time when the US-led military forces are preparing to withdraw from Afghanistan at the end of this year.

The US and its allies invaded Afghanistan in 2001 as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror. The offensive removed the Taliban from power, but insecurity continues to rise across the country, despite the presence of tens of thousands of US-led troops.

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