By Mohammad Yunus Yawar
KABUL (Reuters) – A helicopter used by the Afghan air force crashed as it attempted an emergency landing in central Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing one person and injuring 12, the defence ministry said.
The Mi17 aircraft encountered “technical issues” as it attempted to recover the bodies of people who had fallen into a river in the central Ghor province, Afghanistan’s Taliban-run Ministry of National Defence said in a statement.
The helicopter crashed as it attempted an emergency landing, the ministry added.
The Taliban, an Islamist movement, took over Afghanistan after the withdrawal of U.S.-led foreign forces in 2021 and inherited a number of aircraft from the forces of the Republican regime it toppled.
It is not clear how many aircraft and what types the Taliban have managed to repair, but Russian Mi17 utility helicopters have often been used in rescue operations – including the recent floods that killed hundreds in the north western part of the country.
(Reporting by Mohammad Yunus Yawar in Kabul; Writing by Gibran Peshimam; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
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