A Chinook helicopter of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) went down and killed seven NATO soldiers on board in Kajaki district of Helmand province at about 9 PM (16:30 GMT) on Wednesday, ISAF said in a statement early Thursday.

"The entire crew of five died in the incident; there were also two military passengers who died," it said, adding one Afghan civilian was injured by small arms fire after the crash.

The statement did not clearly disclose how many personnel were on board. "The cause of the crash is being determined by military officials," it said.

Responding to the scene of the crash, a unit was ambushed by enemy fighters, the statement said, adding the unit called for an air strike to eliminate the enemy threat.

In accordance with NATO policy, ISAF does not release the casualties' nationality prior to the relevant national authority doing so.

However, some media reports quoted an anonymous US military official as saying that Taliban militants shot down the chopper by a rocket propelled grenade, and five US soldiers were killed in the crash.

Meanwhile, a Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told Xinhua by satellite phone from an undisclosed place that it was Taliban fighters who brought down the Chinook. This could not be verified immediately.

"All soldiers and personnel on the helicopter apparently were killed," Ahmadi said.

In another recent accident, a Chinook helicopter of the US-led coalition forces crashed on Feb. 18 in Zabul province of southern Afghanistan, killing eight US soldiers and injuring 14 others on board. The two-engine Chinook has the capacity of carrying about 30 persons.

An ISAF aircraft, which was carrying out a reconnaissance task over a battlefield, crashed in Kandahar province of southern Afghanistan on Sept. 2, 2006, killing all 14 British soldiers on board.

Helicopters of ISAF and coalition forces have crashed in this volatile country from time to time. The Taliban usually swiftly claimed responsibility for shooting them down.

However, ISAF and coalition forces denied all this kind of sayings except to accept that one coalition helicopter was shot down by "a lucky rocket propelled grenade" from the Taliban in the eastern Kunar province June 2005.

About 37,000 ISAF and 13,000 coalition soldiers are being deployed in Afghanistan to hunt down militants and keep security. Over 50 ISAF and coalition soldiers have lost their lives in this insurgent country this year.

(Xinhua News Agency May 31, 2007)