KABUL, Dec 9: Twenty-one people including captured Taliban fighters and the family of a senior Northern Alliance commander have been killed in helicopter crash, an alliance commander said on Sunday.

The Northern Alliance helicopter went down on Saturday in bad weather about five kms southwest of Taloqan, the capital of northeastern Takhar province, said commander Daud Khan.

“Due to bad weather one of our helicopters crashed yesterday at 11:30 am and 21 people were martyred,” Khan said.

The dead included Haji Mustafa, a former body guard of the slain Northern Alliance commander Ahmad Shah Masood, Alliance commandos, the crew, and the family of Haji Haider Qul, a senior Northern Alliance commander in Takhar. —AFP