November 7, 2001	Wednesday	Shaba’an 20, 1422

WASHINGTON, Nov 6: The Pentagon denied Tuesday reports that a US military helicopter crashed in Pakistan after taking fire from the Taliban militia, saying it had no information any US helicopters had gone down.

“It is not true,” Richard McGraw, deputy assistant secretary of defence for public affairs, said of the report.

McGraw and other Pentagon spokesmen said they had received no reports of any helicopter being shot down or downed in any other way since an incident Friday when a US military helicopter crash landed in bad weather in Afghanistan.

“The Pentagon has no reports of any downed helicopters,” said Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman.

A US official also said no US government helicopters were reported to have gone down.

In the case of the US military helicopter that crash landed Friday, the entire crew were rescued and flown out of Afghanistan, while US fighter jets destroyed the damaged chopper on the ground. Four were injured. — AFP/Reuters