Taliban show off wreckage of what they say is U.S. helicopter; U.S. says none shot down

By KATHY GANNON
Associated Press Writer

KABUL, Afghanistan – The Taliban displayed wires, wheels and twisted metal Wednesday that they said were parts of a U.S. helicopter they claimed to have shot down. The Pentagon denies losing any of its aircraft to hostile fire.

"Die To America Terrorist," read a giant white banner in English and the local Pashtu language. The banner was stretched across the wreckage. Wires poked out of a control panel, and wheels dangled precariously from the side of the post.

The Taliban said the charred wreckage was from a U.S. military helicopter that was shot down last weekend. Washington said it has not lost a single aircraft to hostile fire in nearly five weeks of bombing.

The U.S. military says there have been three helicopter accidents in its campaign, two caused by bad weather. The third was a hard landing during a special operations raid last month in southern Afghanistan.

The United States acknowledged the hard landing after the Taliban showed its landing gear on al-Jazeera television.

Regardless of its origin, the wreckage hanging from a police outpost in Kabul is a prize Taliban trophy and a novelty for residents, who have few distractions. The Taliban have banned movies, television, music and most forms of light entertainment.

"This is computerized, very modern from America," said Ismat, a young man in a turban. He said he was not a Taliban, but condemned the U.S. campaign as an attack "against the poor people."

President Bush ordered the air strikes after the Taliban refused to hand over Osama bin laden and his al-Qaida network, suspected of plotting and carrying out the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that killed 4,500 people in the United States.

The police post where the wreckage hangs is famous in Kabul. It was the site of the 1996 execution of Afghanistan's former communist President Najibullah, whom the Taliban hanged shortly after capturing the city.

Najibullah had been living for four years in a United Nations compound in the heart of the capital during the rule of the squabbling parties that make up the northern alliance, which is now fighting the Taliban from strongholds in the north.

When the Taliban swept into Kabul, they took Najibullah and his brother from their place of refuge, tortured and hanged them. Their bloodied bodies were left for two days before they were taken down and given to their families.

On Wednesday, young boys on bicycles passed the wreckage on the police post. A few vehicles stopped. A Taliban soldier got out of his pickup truck to examine the remains.

Twelve-year-old Wazir fingered the machine's control panel, toyed with the wires and wondered what happened: "I don't know. They say they shot it down."

On Tuesday, the same debris was hoisted atop a black truck and paraded through the streets of Kabul. The Taliban shouted slogans against the United States and vowed to wage a jihad, or holy war.

AP-WS-11-07-01 0952EST