A Taliban minister said today that militia fighters had shot down two US helicopters in Ghazni province in southern Afghanistan. The minister said up to 50 US troops were killed.
The United States has admitted losing one helicopter yesterday to bad weather in Afghanistan, reporting four injuries.
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Earlier Mr Maulvi Najibullah, Taliban consul in the Pakistani border city of Peshawar, was quoted as saying the helicopters had been taking part in an air raid yesterday in Nawur district when they were shot down.
"One helicopter fell in Hockack in Nawur district and the other in the village of Hasrat," Najibullah said.
The two places are near to each other and Afghan Islamic Press quoted sources as saying there was doubt whether the debris was one helicopter or two.
The United States said a military helicopter crash landed in Afghanistan due to severe weather, injuring four crew members.
The US Defense Department said the crew was rescued and an air strike was called in to destroy the badly damaged aircraft.
Meanwhile an explosion was heard in Kabul this morning and Taliban guns opened fire at two US jets that flew over the Afghan capital, residents said.
Last night US aircraft launched new raids on Kabul, dropping at least two bombs near the airport, according to witnesses, after another day of heavy bombing by B-52 bombers, used to carpet-bomb Taliban front lines.
Earlier, north of the capital, B-52s hit Taliban positions on the Shomali plain.
Elsewhere, a massive curtain of smoke and dust rose around a Taliban-controlled hilltop area southwest of Bagram air base, a significant sector in a front line where the Taliban have concentrated about 6,000 fighters.
The White House yesterday categorically denied Taliban claims that it had already lost as many as 100 soldiers in the terror war.
President George W. Bush also warned that he would not shut down the US pounding of Afghanistan during Ramadan in an attempt to tighten a "noose" around Osama bin Laden.
"The enemy won't rest during Ramadan and neither will we. We're going to pursue this war until we achieve our objectives," Mr Bush said.
AFP, AP