U.S. loses five more to war

KABUL, Afghanistan — A helicopter crash killed three Australian commandos and a U.S. service member before dawn Monday in a rugged area of southern Afghanistan where fighting has raged for days.

Five other international service members, including four Americans, died in separate attacks in the east and south, officials said.

NATO and Australian officials said there was no evidence that hostile fire was responsible for the crash, although Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi claimed the insurgents shot down the helicopter with a rocket.

The deaths brought the number of international servicemen killed in Afghanistan this month to at least 62, including 41 Americans, as criminal investigators in Washington examine allegations that Afghan security firms have been funneling as much as $4 million a week from contractors paid with U.S. tax dollars to warlords and the Taliban.

The Australian deaths are likely to increase pressure on the government of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to withdraw Australian forces from the conflict.

“This is a tragic day for Australia and for the Australian defense force,” Rudd said in a statement to Parliament. “We know our mission in Afghanistan is hard, but this mission is critical for our common security.”

Australia’s air force commander, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, said seven Australians were injured in the crash, two of them seriously. He said the helicopter went down about 3:40 a.m. in the northern part of Kandahar province, the southern Taliban stronghold that is the focus of a major NATO and Afghan security operation.

Afghan officials said the crash occurred in the Shah Wali Kot district of Kandahar, the scene of recent heavy fighting involving Australian and U.S. special operations troops and Taliban fighters. The area controls routes into Uruzgan province, where most of Australia’s 1,500 soldiers are based.

June is shaping up to be one of the deadliest months of the 9-year war for U.S. and international forces. The deadliest month for U.S. troops was October 2009, when 59 Americans died. The deadliest for the entire international force was July 2009 when 75 troops, including 44 Americans, were killed.

Obama promised to review progress at the end of the year and begin pulling out U.S. forces starting in July 2011 depending on conditions on the ground.

Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, said Sunday that the July 2011 date still holds.

Chris Grey, a spokesman for the Army Criminal Investigation Command at Fort Belvoir, Va., confirmed Monday that an extortion inquiry is under way. But he said he would not provide details in order “to protect the integrity of the ongoing case.”

According to a U.S. military document detailing the allegations being examined by investigators, payments reportedly end up in insurgent hands through a $2.1 billion Pentagon contract to transport food, water, fuel and ammunition to American troops stationed at bases across Afghanistan. To ensure safe passage through dangerous areas, the trucking companies make payments to local security firms with ties to the Taliban or warlords who control the roads. If the payments aren’t made, the convoys will be attacked.

The document says the companies hired under the Afghan Host Nation Trucking contract may be paying between $2 million and $4 million a week to insurgent groups.

Information for this article was contributed by Mirwais Khan, John Heilprin, Heidi Vogt, Amir Shah, Rohan Sullivan and Richard Lardner of The Associated Press.