4 DIE WHEN DRUG AGENT FLIGHT CRASHES INTO AFGHAN HOMES

LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan (AP) -- A plane carrying U.S. drug
enforcement officials slammed into tents and mud brick houses Monday
while trying to avoid a truck on a runway, killing two people on
board and two girls on the ground.

At least 13 people were injured, including several Americans, after
the Russian-made, twin-engine An-32 aircraft plowed into a nomad
settlement on landing at an airport in Lashkar Gah, capital of
Helmand province.

Two of the 16 people aboard the plane - 12 passengers and four crew
members - were killed, said Canadian military spokesman Quentin
Innis. Eight others were injured and flown by helicopters to a U.S.-
led coalition hospital in Kandahar, about 75 miles away.

The U.S. Embassy said several of the 11 Americans aboard were injured.

Two Afghan nomad girls, ages 2 and 3, were crushed to death in their
mud brick homes as they slept, their mothers said. At least five
other people were injured.

"We were sitting eating our lunch when I heard a loud noise, and then
turned to see a big plane sliding along the ground from the airstrip
before it smashed into our homes," said Lal Bibi, 40, who said her 2-
year-old daughter, Palwasha, was killed.

The casualty count could have been higher if the settlement's men had
not left earlier to work at a farm picking opium poppies, Bibi said.

The plane was leased by the State Department and carried a team from
the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs,
Maj. Innis said. The bureau has been helping Afghan authorities
conduct opium eradication campaigns across southern Afghanistan.

"The aircraft was on final approach when a civilian truck drove
across the runway," Innis said. "The pilot pulled up to avoid hitting
the truck but was unable to gain sufficient speed to remain airborne."