NATO: Helicopter crash at Kabul base kills 5

Five members of NATO's international support mission in Afghanistan were killed and five injured when a British military helicopter crashed in the capital, Kabul, officials said on Monday.

NATO's Resolute Support mission said in a statement that two British service members, two U.S. service members and one French contracted civilian were killed as a result of Sunday's crash at its headquarters in Kabul.

The British Ministry of Defense earlier said two Royal Air Force members were among those killed when the Puma Mk 2 helicopter crashed while landing at the headquarters of the NATO mission.

NATO's combat mission in Afghanistan has ended but around 12,000 mostly U.S. troops remain in Afghanistan as part of Resolute Support, focused on training Afghan security forces.

The mission statement said the helicopter "crashed due to a non-hostile incident" around 4:15 p.m. Sunday at Camp Resolute Support in Kabul. It is the second crash of a military aircraft in as many weeks. The crash of an Air Force C-130J transport aircraft at Jalalabad Airfield killed 11 people on Oct. 2.

"We're deeply saddened by the loss of our teammates," Brig. Gen. Wilson A. Shoffner, deputy chief of staff for communications, said in the Resolute Support statement on Monday afternoon.

The incident, described as "non-hostile," is being investigated, it added.

In a separate incident, two Afghan pilots were killed and five people onboard were injured when a small Afghan army plane crashed in the central province of Bamyan on Monday afternoon, said Abdul Rahman Ahmadi, spokesman for the provincial governor.

A Ministry of Defense spokesman confirmed that an Afghan army plane had crashed due to a technical problem, but could not immediately confirm the casualties.

Wire services