5 Killed in Helicopter Crash in Iran

An emergency and rescue helicopter searches for a plane that crashed in a mountainous area of central Iran, February 19, 2018. (AP)
An emergency and rescue helicopter searches for a plane that crashed in a mountainous area of central Iran, February 19, 2018. (AP)
TT

5 Killed in Helicopter Crash in Iran

An emergency and rescue helicopter searches for a plane that crashed in a mountainous area of central Iran, February 19, 2018. (AP)
An emergency and rescue helicopter searches for a plane that crashed in a mountainous area of central Iran, February 19, 2018. (AP)

Five people were killed when a rescue helicopter crashed into a utility pole in Iran’s western province of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, reported state television.

The aircraft was trying to airlift a pregnant woman, but did not make it to her location on Monday, it said.

Pirhossein Koulivand, head of the country's emergency medical services, told the TV three of the five aboard were flight crew and two were rescue workers.

Iranian aircraft crashes have been blamed on its old fleet and years of international sanctions over the country's nuclear program.

In 2016, a helicopter belonged to the oil company crashed in the Caspian Sea, killing five onboard. In 2015, four died in a crash of a helicopter transferring an injured oil staffer to hospital from an offshore oil platform.

Last year, 66 passengers on board an Iranian domestic flight were killed when their aircraft crashed into the Zagros Mountains.

In January, an Iranian Boeing 707 cargo plane coming from Kyrgyzstan crashed while trying to land west of Iran's capital. Only one person of the 16 on board survived.



North Korean Troops Experience Mass Casualties on Ukraine Front Lines, White House Says

A Ukrainian soldier reflected in a car mirror looks on as a Swedish-made Archer Howitzer operated by Ukrainian members of the 45th Artillery Brigade fires towards Russian positions, in the Donetsk region, on January 20, 2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (AFP)
A Ukrainian soldier reflected in a car mirror looks on as a Swedish-made Archer Howitzer operated by Ukrainian members of the 45th Artillery Brigade fires towards Russian positions, in the Donetsk region, on January 20, 2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (AFP)
TT

North Korean Troops Experience Mass Casualties on Ukraine Front Lines, White House Says

A Ukrainian soldier reflected in a car mirror looks on as a Swedish-made Archer Howitzer operated by Ukrainian members of the 45th Artillery Brigade fires towards Russian positions, in the Donetsk region, on January 20, 2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (AFP)
A Ukrainian soldier reflected in a car mirror looks on as a Swedish-made Archer Howitzer operated by Ukrainian members of the 45th Artillery Brigade fires towards Russian positions, in the Donetsk region, on January 20, 2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (AFP)

North Korean forces are experiencing mass casualties on the front lines of Russia's war against Ukraine, with a thousand of their troops killed or wounded in the last week alone in the Kursk region of Russia, White House spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Friday.

The number far exceeds the figure US officials have previously provided.

"It is clear that Russian and North Korean military leaders are treating these troops as expendable and ordering them on hopeless assaults against Ukrainian defenses," Kirby said, describing the North Korean troops' offensive as "massed, dismounted assaults."

The North Korean and Russian missions to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Kirby said President Joe Biden would likely approve another security assistance package for Ukraine in coming days. Earlier this week, Biden condemned Russia's Christmas Day attacks on Ukraine's energy system and some of its cities and asked the Defense Department to continue its surge of weapons to Ukraine.

On Dec. 17, a US military official said North Korea had suffered several hundred casualties while fighting against Ukrainian forces in Russia's Kursk region.

Asked about what ranks the North Korean casualties included, the military official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said it was from lower-level troops to "very near to the top."

On Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that more than 3,000 North Korean soldiers have been killed and wounded in Russia's Kursk region.