Officials Deny Reports Of Enemy Involvement

ANN REALTIME REPORTING 09.02.06 1345 EDT: Fourteen British soldiers are dead, after their Nimrod MR2 marine reconnaisance plane went down in Afghanistan Saturday.

Details of the incident are sketchy, although UK Defense Minister Des Browne discounts Taliban reports a shoulder-fired missile brought the aircraft (file photos of type, above and below) down.

"...At this stage all the indications are that this was a terrible accident and not the result of hostile action," Browne told the BBC.

The aircraft was supporting a NATO mission in the southern region of Khandahar. Earlier, NATO officials said the organization had launched a major offensive against known hideouts of Taliban insurgents in the area.

Abdul Manan, a witness in Chalaghor village, told the Associated Press the plane crashed about 100 yards from his home, and pieces of wreckage landed nearby. He reported seeing a small fire at the back of the plane before it hit the ground with a huge explosion that "shook the whole village."

Officials believe the crash is the biggest single loss of British troops since operations in Afghanistan began in 2001. Including Saturday's crash, 36 British personnel have given their lives supporting the war on terror in that country.

This crash is the second this week involving a coalition aircraft in Afghanistan. As Aero-News reported, a Dutch pilot was killed Thursday when his F-16 crashed in the southern province of Ghazni.

A CH-47 Chinook helicopter crashed in June 2005 after coming under enemy fire near the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, killing all 16 US soldiers onboard.

FMI: www.nato.int