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Five U.S. military personnel were killed in a helicopter crash in southern Afghanistan, the Pentagon said on Tuesday, although there were no immediate details about the cause of the crash. The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan said the crash occurred on Monday. It happened on the same day that two U.S. troops and five Afghan police and soldiers were killed by a person in an Afghan military uniform in the restive east of the country. "The cause of the crash is under investigation, however initial reporting indicates there was no enemy activity in the area at the time of the incident," ISAF said in a statement. The Pentagon said all five killed in the crash were Americans. New Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel left Afghanistan earlier on Monday after a difficult first trip to Kabul. His visit was marred by a suicide bomb attack near where he was holding a meeting, and differences with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who accused the United States of col

Chuck Hagel is in Afghanistan for his first official visit to the country since taking on the role of defense secretary. Hagel spent much of his first morning in Afghanistan touring a training center for officers and enlisted men and women. KABUL — Afghan President Hamid Karzai lashed out at the United States in strikingly acerbic terms Sunday, implying that the American military was stoking violence in collusion with the Taliban to justify a prolonged presence here and charging that foreign troops were harassing Afghan university students. The remarks painted an embarrassing picture of discord that marred Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s first foreign trip as Pentagon chief and plunged the tenuous allies into crisis mode at a time when the United States is struggling to wind down the unpopular war in a dignified manner. Afghan and American officials provided differing accounts about why a joint news conference scheduled for Sunday night that had been expected to be the center