SAVANNAH, GA (WTOC/AP) - Five soldiers killed Monday night in a helicopter crash were from the 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade that's based at Hunter Army Airfield.
The UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter went down outside Kandahar city in Afghanistan.
"We held a ramp ceremony last night 2300 for our 5 fallen heroes from TF Falcon--huge crowd there to bid farewell to their comrades. Our hearts and prayers are with the men and women of Marne Air and their families.
And our hearts also go out to the soldiers and families of 3-69, Speed and Power, who lost a great SSG on Monday," said Maj. Gen. Robert "Abe" Abrams, International Security Assistance Force Regional Commander South and commanding general of the U.S. Army 3rd Infantry Division, from his Twitter account.
The families have been notified. That makes seven U.S. soldiers killed Monday night, which is the deadliest day for U.S. forces so far this year, the Associated Press reports.
Two U.S. special operations forces were shot hours earlier in an insider attack by an Afghan policeman in eastern Afghanistan. Staff Sgt. Rex L. Schad, 26, of Edmond, Okla., and Capt. Andrew M. Pedersen-Keel, 28, of South Miami, Fla., died in Jalrez District, Afghanistan, of injuries they suffered.
Schad was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 69th Armor Regiment, 1st Armor Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Ga. Pedersen-Keel was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne), Fort Bragg, N.C.
The troops killed in Monday's helicopter crash make 12 U.S. troops killed so far this year in Afghanistan. There were 297 U.S. service members killed in Afghanistan in 2012, according to the Associated Press.
Abrams is holding a news conference from Afghanistan at 11 a.m.
Copyright 2013 WTOC. All rights reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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