Afghanistan: 5 NATO troops die in Kabul helicopter crash

KABUL, Afghanistan

At least five NATO service members, including two British officers were killed and five others were injured when a British military helicopter crashed at NATO headquarters in the Afghan capital of Kabul on Sunday, an official statement said Monday.

Apparently, the helicopter clashed with a cable of a monitoring balloon as it was landing at the base. A NATO statement said that a Puma Mk2 helicopter belonging to a Royal Air Force crashed in a "non-hostile incident" Sunday afternoon "at Camp Resolute Support”.

The statement added that the incident resulted in the deaths of two British personnel, two U.S. service members and a French contracted civilian.

Five other Resolute Support personnel were also injured in the incident.

The incident came as a Taliban suicide bomber attacked a convoy of U.K. troops in capital Kabul on Sunday morning, leaving seven Afghan civilians wounded and two armored tanks damaged.

British forces as part of NATO's mission in Afghanistan officially ended their combat against Taliban and Al Qaeda militants in 2014; over 500 British troops remain involved in training and advising Afghan national security forces.

British forces have lost 454 soldiers in 13 years of war in Afghanistan. The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force ended its 13-year combat mission in Afghanistan on Dec. 31, 2014.

From Jan. 1, 2015, the mission evolved into training and advising the nascent Afghan security forces. The 13,000 foreign troops for the Resolute Support Mission come from 28 NATO allies and 14 other partner nations.