Telegraph | Article | By Ben Farmer in Kabul | 26 October 2009

Fourteen US soldiers and civilians have died in two helicopter crashes in America’s deadliest day in Afghanistan for four years.

US Blackhawk helicopter: This has been the deadliest year for international and US forces since the 2001 invasion to oust the Taliban Photo: GETTY

In the first crash, a helicopter went down in the west of the country after leaving the scene of a firefight with insurgents.

A Taliban spokesman claimed it had shot down the helicopter in Badghis province, killing seven US troops and three US civilian workers.

The Nato-led coalition blamed “unconfirmed reasons”, adding the cause was “not believed to be from enemy action”.

Eleven American troops, one US civilian and 14 Afghans were also injured in the crash.

Badghis has threatened to slip from government control in recent months with a sharp increase in Taliban activity related to opium growing in the province.

Meanwhile two helicopters collided in mid-air in a separate incident in southern Afghanistan, leaving four more US troops dead and wounding two others.

Helicopters are vital to coalition operations in Afghanistan where there are few roads and the terrain is mountainous and impassable for ground vehicles.

A total of 46 US troops have died in Afghanistan in October in what is already by far the bloodiest year in the country since the 2001 US-led invasion.

Colonel Wayne Shanks, a spokesman for the US army, said that investigations into both incidents were being hampered by “combat conditions”.

He said the Badghis district where the first helicopter went down was “where we see the nexus between the insurgency and the narcotics trade”.

He added that more than a dozen insurgents were killed in the operation that the helicopters had been involved in.

In July 2005, 16 American special forces soldiers were killed in the eastern province of Kunar when their Chinook helicopter was shot down by the Taliban.

The US embassy in Kabul said the three civilians killed in Badghis were embassy staff.

A statement said: “Today the US Embassy mourns the loss of three civilian members of our Embassy community and seven members of the US military, who were killed in a helicopter crash in Western Afghanistan.”

The deaths were reported as President Barack Obama is completing his “Afghan review” amid accusations of “dithering” as the consultations over what strategy to follow in the country drag on.

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