Insurgents hit NATO helicopter carrying Afghan governor, no one injured

Published Saturday May 17th, 2008

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Insurgents fired a rocket that hit a NATO helicopter carrying the governor of a key southern Afghan province Saturday, but no one was injured.

A series of clashes, air strikes and bomb blasts elsewhere in the country killed 10 militants and four civilians.

Helmand Gov. Ghulab Mangal and a delegation of British officials were about to land in the provincial town of Musa Qala when an insurgent rocket-propelled grenade struck the helicopter.

Mangal said the pilots managed to land the CH-47 Chinook helicopter at a nearby NATO base.

No one was injured in the attack, though the helicopter was damaged.

Mangal and other officials were to inaugurate a new mosque in Musa Qala, a town that lies in Helmand at the heart of the country's opium poppy-producing region.

U.S., British and Afghan troops pushed Taliban fighters out of Musa Qala late last year after the militants overran the area in early 2007 and held it for 10 months.

The delegation returned back to the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah in another helicopter.

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