6 soldiers from the US-led NATO mission Died in Afghan helicopter.

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Kabul (AFP) – Six soldiers from the US-led NATO mission fighting Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan were killed in a helicopter crash on Tuesday, with NATO officials saying it was not a suspected militant strike.

However the Taliban immediately claimed responsibility for the deaths, using their main Twitter account to report that their fighters had shot down a US helicopter in the province of Zabul.

The incident was the single biggest loss of life for the NATO mission in Afghanistan since seven Georgian soldiers died when a suicide bomber blew up a truck loaded with explosives outside a base in Helmand province in June.

US-funded project supported illegal mining, Afghan watchdog alleges

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A project in Afghanistan funded by the US Defense Department provided equipment and money to a local police commander for the illegal extraction of chromite, an Afghan anti-corruption watchdog alleged Sunday.

The commander of the Afghan Local Police, a village protection force, in the eastern province of Kunar, extracted the chromite for more than a year, said Integrity Watch Afghanistan (IWA) in a report.

Microphone Blast Eliminates Afghan Governor At Eid Prayers

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A bomb hidden in a microphone has killed an Afghan provincial governor as he made a speech at a mosque after Eid prayers in Logar, near to the capital Kabul.

Arsala Jamal was appointed by President Hamid Karzai, like all 34 provincial governors, and he was viewed as a close ally of the president, acting as one of his campaign managers in the 2009 election.

“This morning, governor Jamal was delivering a speech after Eid prayers when he was killed with a bomb planted in the microphone,” Logar provincial governor spokesman Din Mohammad Darwish. “The governor wished to speak and congratulate everyone on the occasion of Eid. At the least 18 others have already been wounded, including civilians and government employees.”

Continue after the break.

Afghan President Karzai receiving CIA black money for over a decade

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Tens of millions of U.S. dollars in cash were delivered by the CIA in suitcases, backpacks and plastic shopping bags to the office of Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai for more than a decade, according to the New York Times, citing current and former advisers to the Afghan leader.

The so-called "ghost money" was meant to buy influence for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) but instead fuelled corruption and empowered warlords, undermining Washington's exit strategy from Afghanistan, the newspaper quoted U.S. officials as saying.