Taliban shoot down US chopper in Afghanistan

Insurgents shot down a US helicopter after exchanging fire with its crew in central Afghanistan on Monday, while a suicide bomber in the north killed two US soldiers inside a police station, officials said.
The helicopter was forced down in Wardak, one province west of Kabul, after insurgents hit it with gunfire Monday, said Lt Cmdr Walter Matthew, a US military spokesman. The crew survived and have been extracted from the area, he said.
"The helicopter crew exchanged fire with the enemy before the damage brought the helicopter down," Matthews said. Coalition troops secured the area and "are in the process of recovering" the helicopter, he said.
At least four militants were killed in the exchange, said Fazel Karim Muslim, the chief of Sayed Abad district.
Wardak province has seen an increase in insurgent activity the last two years, and its main highway is now extremely risky to travel on, particularly at night. In mid-October, a US Special Forces raid freed a kidnapped American working for the Army Corps of Engineers who had been held by his captors in Wardak for two months.
Insurgents rarely bring down military helicopters, though they have hit several in recent years.
Separately, a suicide bomber wearing a police uniform blew himself up inside a police station in northern Afghanistan on Monday, killing two American soldiers and wounding five other people, officials said.
The bomber entered a police station in Pul-e-Khumri, the capital of Baghlan province, while Afghan officials were meeting with US troops advising a police training programme, provincial police chief Gen Abdul Rahman Sayed Kheil said.
The blast killed two American soldiers, a US military spokesman said.