U.S. Troops Recover Chopper Downed By Afghan Taliban

Black Hawk helicopter (file photo)

KABUL (Reuters) -- U.S.-led troops have retrieved a Black Hawk helicopter shot down by Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan, the U.S. military said on October 28.

There was no casualties on board the UH-60 aircraft which came under small-arms fire from militants and had to land when its tail was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade in Maidan Wardak province to the west of Kabul on October 27, it said.

Coalition soldiers sent to the site of the helicopter attack killed 12 insurgents in ensuing gunbattles, the statement said.

Taliban insurgents are rarely able to bring down helicopters in Afghanistan, but have forced aircraft to make a number of emergency landings.

The incident comes amid rising violence in Afghanistan this year, the bloodiest period since 2001 when U.S.-led and Afghan armed groups overthrew Taliban's radical Islamist government.