Police: 26 killed in Afghan bus crash

[July 26, 2010]  KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) -- A speeding bus flipped over Monday in southern Afghanistan, killing 26 people who were on board, Afghan police said.

The bus ran off the road in Daman district south of Kandahar city just after dawn and flipped over, said the head of traffic police for the province, Mohammadullah Khan. Twenty-two people had originally been reported killed, and Khan said another four died of their injuries later in the day. More than 20 were injured, he said. He did not say how many people were in the bus.

The bus was heading toward the capital of Kabul and was driving well over normal speeds, Khan said.

In the capital, a helicopter made a "hard landing" on the perimeter of a NATO base early Monday, the coalition said in a statement. Four people aboard received minor injuries, the statement said.

A spokeswoman for NATO forces declined to rule out hostile fire or give any indication of what led to the emergency landing, saying only that the incident was under investigation. Lt. Commander Katie Kendrick also declined to specify which NATO base in the capital was involved and whether the craft had landed inside the perimeter or just outside.

In the east, meanwhile, a unit of Afghan army commandos retook a remote but volatile area of Nuristan province that has changed between government hands and insurgents multiple times in recent months, the Defense Ministry said.

The commandos dropped into Barg-e-Matal district from helicopters and recaptured the area. The insurgents set fire to the district headquarters building before fleeing, the ministry said in a statement. There were no details about casualties but the ministry said it believed the insurgents had suffered losses. There were no army casualties, the statement said.

[Associated Press; By MIRWAIS KHAN]

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