From John Nelson
KABUL: A Black Hawk helicopter crashed during a Taliban training exercise in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul, killing three, the group’s defence ministry said.
Videos of helicopter – showing the falling moments of the Black Hawk – also circulated across Social Media on Sunday.
“An American Black Hawk helicopter, which was flown for training, crashed due to a technical problem inside the campus of the National Defence University,” said Ministry of Defence spokesperson Enaytullah Khowrazmi, adding five people were also injured.
The Taliban took control of some US-made aircraft after they seized the country just over a year ago. It remains unclear how many are operational.
US forces deliberately damaged some military hardware as they left and Afghan forces had flown some helicopters to central Asian nations.
This year, Taliban forces held a military parade in Kabul using captured American-made armored vehicles and Russian helicopters in a display that showed their ongoing transformation from an insurgent force to a regular standing army.
The Taliban operated as insurgent fighters for two decades but have used the large stock of weapons and equipment left behind when the former Western-backed government collapsed in August to overhaul their forces.
The parade was linked to the graduation of 250 freshly trained soldiers, defense ministry spokesman Enayatullah Khwarazmi said.
The exercise involved dozens of US-made M117 armored security vehicles driving slowly up and down a major Kabul road with MI-17 helicopters patrolling overhead.
