A 30-ton Mi-26 helicopter, operated on a NATO contract by the Moldovan firm Pecotox Air, was hovering with a load of supplies near the town of Sangin in southern Afghanistan on July 14, when Taliban fighters fired on it with a rocket-propelled grenade. The crew of an accompanying helicopter saw the rocket sheer off the Mi-26's tail boom, causing it to crash. All six Ukrainian crew members on board died, as did an Afghan boy on the ground.
Less than a week later, on July 19, a civilian Mi-8 operated by a Russian company crashed at the NATO base in Kandahar, killing 16 passengers. The two crashes were the latest in a spate of fatal aviation incidents in southern Afghanistan in mid-July, underscoring the dangers faced by civilian aviators working on behalf of the U.S. and NATO in the contested region -- and by their passengers. The incidents also highlight the murky role Eastern European military contractors, who some might call "mercenaries," play in world conflicts. ...
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