Five die in Afghan copter crash

Five coalition service members died Saturday in a helicopter crash in southern Afghanistan, NATO’s International Security Assistance Force said.The nationalities of the five were not immediately known. ISAF’s policy is to “defer casualty identification procedures to the relevant national authorities.”The incident occurred in the Takhtapul district of Kandahar province, according to Kandahar police chief Zia DuraniISAF said an investigation is under way to determine more facts, but Durani said there is no evidence of insurgent activities and it appears the crash happened because of technical problems.This comes amid a series of deadly attacks in the turbulent country. On Thursday, an American doctor and two others were shot by a policeman guarding a hospital in the capital, Kabul.In December, a helicopter crash resulted in the deaths of six ISAF members — all Americans.Afghanistan, long in the throes of unrest, is undergoing political change.Some seven million Afghans went to the polls on April 5 to choose a successor to outgoing President Hamid Karzai. It will be the country’s first democratic transfer of presidential power.It will announce the preliminary results of its landmark presidential election Saturday, with the final numbers to be confirmed next month.Security will be a key issue for whoever is elected president as NATO troops are scheduled to draw down from Afghanistan by the end of the year.