The U.S. will withdraw 20 helicopters from Afghanistan in mid-2007, senior military sources in NATO say.

The loss of these rotary wing assets will be a major setback for ISAF operations, which greatly rely on tactical airlift. As a consequence, more troops will have to travel on roads, meaning more casualties to IED- or other types of insurgent attacks.

The helicopters to be pulled out are a mix of Boeing CH-47D Chinooks and Sikorsky UH-60 Blackhawks, NATO sources say.

(Photo credit: Australian Defense Dept)

According to the sources, NATO was notified about the planned withdrawal as long as one year ago. The Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe, British Army General Sir John Reith (who is responsible for ISAF force generation) has since written letters to 20 NATO nations asking them to come forward with replacement helicopters. So far, only Spain has offered two Eurocopter Cougar-type helicopters.

"There are plenty of suitable helicopters available in the nations contacted, but obviously, countries prefer to use them on national tasks at home rather than to be make them available to support ISAF in Afghanistan," a senior NATO military source complains.

At the end of May, one of the U.S. Chinooks currently based at Kandahar Airfield was shot down by a rocket-propelled grenade when departing from a hot landing zone in Helmand province.

According to a NATO spokesman in Brussels, the big chopper had just dropped of some 30 troops from the 82nd Airborne Division during a major airmobile operation that involved over a dozen Chinooks, including two from the Netherlands. Five crew plus two passengers (a British and Canadian member of an ISAF Combat Camera team) were killed.