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Rescuers try to reach downed helicopterAircraft carried about 16 troops over Afghanistan, officials say
![]() The MH-47 is the special operations version of the U.S. Army's Chinook transport helicopter. RELATED
YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS(CNN) -- Rescuers were battling darkness to reach eastern Afghanistan's Hindu Kush mountains, where a U.S. military helicopter carrying more than a dozen troops went down Tuesday. The area west of Asadabad, near the Pakistan border, is known for having snow-covered peaks rising as high as 7,000 feet. The doomed MH-47, a variant of the Army's twin-rotor Chinook transport used by special operations troops, was carrying about 16 military personnel onboard, U.S. military officials said. Military sources tell CNN an emergency beacon went off when the aircraft went down. The mission was to bring in reinforcements "in support of U.S. forces currently conducting counter-terrorism operations," the Coalition Press Information Center of the Combined Forces Command in Kabul said in a written statement. Army and Marine forces have been operating in the area, fighting insurgents believed to be crossing in and out of Pakistan. Neither the cause of the crash nor the condition of those aboard were known late Tuesday. The military has not released any identities of the members onboard. "U.S. fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters are currently providing close air support to the forces on the ground," the press center said. In April, 16 people -- 13 U.S. troops and three military contractors -- were killed when a CH-47 Chinook crashed near Ghazni, 80 miles [128 kilometers] southwest of Kabul. It was returning to Bagram Air Base near the capital. (Full story) A number of U.S. and coalition troops have died in helicopter crashes since the war began in October 2001. CNN's Barbara Starr and Mike Mount contributed to this report. ![]()
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