Nine killed as Afghan army helicopter shot down

Nine people, including a pilot and five security force members, onboard a Mi-17 helicopter that belonged to the Afghan army were killed after it crash-landed in Behsud district in Maidan Wardak province, the Ministry of Defence said in a statement on Thursday. 

The Defence Ministry said the incident is under investigation, reported TOLOnews. 

Meanwhile, a source said the incident happened at around 1:30 am on Thursday when four army helicopters were carrying special forces, equipment and food to Behsud.  

“While landing, one of the helicopters was shot and taken down by illegal armed men,” sources said. However, it’s not yet confirmed by the officials. 

Mohammad Karim Rahimi, an Afghan pilot, was killed in the Mi-17 helicopter crash in Maidan Wardak, the sources said.

Meanwhile, three civilians were killed and 11 more were wounded after a bus carrying government employees was targeted by a blast in Kabul on Thursday morning.

The incident happened at around 7:20am local time in Sar-e-Kotal area in Kabul's district 17, police said.

Sources said the bus carried employees of the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology.  

The victims have been taken to a nearby hospital, eyewitness said.

No group has claimed responsibility for the blast. 

This comes as five civilians, including four women – one of them pregnant – and a child, were killed in an explosion in downtown Kabul that targeted a bus carrying employees of two government ministries on Monday afternoon.

At least 13 others, all civilians, were wounded in the explosion, according to officials.  

Also on Wednesday, unidentified gunmen in Kabul's PD8 shot and killed Sayed Wakil Agha, the former district governor of Logar’s Charkh’s district, and then escaped from the scene.

In PD3 of Kabul, gunmen attacked and wounded Rasoul Khan, a security official in the city, and the assailants escaped the scene. “They (attackers) were riding in a Hilux car, there were two armed men inside, they fired at his head, the people tried to detain them but the attackers took the car and flew,” said Lima, an eyewitness.

Meanwhile, in the western part of the city, armed attackers gunned down two police officers in Paghman district.

In a separate incident, armed men attacked a student Nadim who also works as a street vendor to help his family.