(31 May 2007) SHOTLIST
Kabul - 31 May 2007
1. Set up shot of Major John Thomas International Security Assistant Forces (ISAF) spokesman
2. Close-up of US Air Force badge
3. SOUNDBITE: (English) Major John Thomas, ISAF spokesman:
"Last (Wednesday) night, a little after 9 p.m. local time, a Chinook helicopter went down in Helmand province near the Kajaki area. There were seven people on board they were all ISAF soldiers, all of them died in the crash. After the crash a unit went in to the crash scene and received small arms fire from an ambush from the enemy. After they secured the crash site they did leave the area with one civilian local national who was wounded and they are treating that person at an ISAF hospital."
4. Cutaway of Thomas talking to reporter
5. SOUNDBITE: (English) Major John Thomas, ISAF spokesman:
"It was a hostile area where the helicopter went down, and initial indications are that enemy fire may have brought down the helicopter."
6. Cutaway of Thomas talking to reporter
7. SOUNDBITE: (English) Major John Thomas, ISAF spokesman:
"The scene has been secured, there are ISAF people on scene, the wreckage remains, but in this case there will be a full investigation. We will try to determine everything that happened and to fully investigate the site."
(FIRST RUN 0730 NEWS UPDATE, 31 MAY 2007)
FILE: Helmand - June 2006
8. Wide of CH-47 Chinook helicopter, similar type to one apparently shot down, hovering in Helmand mountains
9. Various of CH-47 Chinook dropping off US troops, flying away
STORYLINE
Five Americans, a Briton and a Canadian died when a Chinook helicopter was apparently shot down in Afghanistan's most volatile province, officials
said on Thursday.
The Taliban claimed responsibility.
NATO's International Security Assistance Force said other troops rushing to the scene were ambushed and had to call in air support to drive off their attackers.
Initial reports suggested the helicopter was hit with a rocket-propelled grenade on Wednesday evening, said the US official, who insisted on speaking anonymously because the crash was still under investigation.
NATO said there were no survivors.
"It was a hostile area, where the helicopter went down," said Major John Thomas, a spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force.
"Initial indications are that enemy fire may have brought down the helicopter," he said.
A purported Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, claimed in a phone call to The Associated Press that militants shot the helicopter down in southern Helmand province, the world's largest opium poppy-growing region where combat has been heavy in recent months.
Ahmadi did not offer any proof for his claim, but he specified the helicopter crashed in the Kajaki district hours before NATO reported that information.
Kajaki is the site of a hydroelectric dam and the scene of recent fighting.
NATO said the CH-47 Chinook was carrying a crew of five and two military passengers. The cause was "being determined by military officials," it said.
A US military official said the British and Canadian soldiers were the passengers.
The official requested anonymity because the dead soldiers' home countries had not yet publicly released their identities.
NATO said troops going to the crash site were ambushed and called in an airstrike "to eliminate the enemy threat."
It did not say if the troops were from the US-led coalition, NATO's force or the Afghan army.
One civilian was injured by gunfire.
Thomas said that the wreckage remains on the site, which has been secured by NATO troops.
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