At least three Afghan crew members were killed Saturday when a U.S.-manufactured Black Hawk helicopter they were flying crashed, the Taliban’s defense ministry said. The statement said that five others were wounded in the accident during a training session overseen by Afghanistan's defense ministry at the capital of Kabul. It is not known how many U.S. choppers remain in the hands of the Taliban government. As the U.S.-backed Afghan government collapsed in mid-August last year, dozens of Afghan pilots fled to Central Asian countries, including Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Afghan air force pilots played a key role, alongside their U.S. counterparts, in the 20-year war against Taliban insurgents that ended with the departure of foreign troops last year. The airstrikes inflicted heavy casualties among the Taliban and repeatedly drove them from positions they had seized in different parts of the country. Read: UN warns 6 million Afghans at risk of famine as crises grow Last year about 140 Afghan pilots and others were flown out of Tajikistan then to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates and their final destination in the U.S. Separately, three civilians were wounded when a bicycle bomb exploded in Kabul, said Khalid Zadran, spokesman for the the capital's police chief. The attack occurred in the Shai neighborhood and there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast.   Recently, the Islamic State group has claimed similar attacks in the country. IS has waged a bloody campaign of attacks on Taliban targets and minority groups, particularly Shiites whom the extremist IS considers heretics.

A Vietnam-era helicopter showcased in action movies crashed on a rural West Virginia road, killing all six people on board, during an annual reunion for helicopter enthusiasts. The Federal Aviation Administration said the Bell UH-1B “Huey” helicopter crashed along Route 17 in Logan County about 5 p.m. Wednesday. All six people on board were killed, said Ray Bryant, chief of operations for the Logan County emergency ambulance service authority. The helicopter crashed in clear weather on a road near the local airport, he said. “The entire cab of it was on fire,” Bryant said in a phone interview Thursday. “It was recognized by the first responders as being a helicopter from this area because we see it a lot,” he said. The crash occurred during an annual reunion for helicopter enthusiasts at MARPAT Aviation in Logan. It was scheduled to begin Tuesday and end Sunday, according to MARPAT's website. During the event, visitors could sign up to ride or fly the historic helicopter, described by organizers as one of the last of its kind still flying. Read: Medical helicopter crashes near church; all 4 aboard survive The helicopter was flown by the 114th Assault Helicopter Company, “The Knights of the Sky,” in Vinh Long, Vietnam, throughout much of the 1960s, according to MARPAT. After the Huey returned to the U.S. in 1971, the website says, it was featured in movies like “Die Hard, “The Rock” and “Under Siege: Dark Territory." Neither reunion organizers nor MARPAT officials returned requests for comment Thursday. Patty Belcher, who lives nearby, was driving to the store when she came upon the crash. “There was smoke so thick that you couldn’t hardly see nothing but smoke and flames," she said by phone Thursday. "It was coming down the ditch line on the righthand side, and I said, ‘My God, I better turn around. It might catch this truck on fire.’ So I turned around and came back.” The crash was near the Battle of Blair Mountain historic sites, where a deadly clash erupted a century ago as thousands of coal miners marched to unionize in West Virginia. Read: Pakistan army helicopter crashes in Kashmir; 2 pilots killed Bobbi Childs saw smoke and flames and got close enough to see a man who was trapped. “I saw that there was a guy trapped, I guess the captain. I tried to get down to the door where he was at. You could see him plain as day. I tried to get to him, but the fire was too hot. I couldn’t get to him,” Childs told WOWK-TV. The road was expected to remain closed for at least 24 hours. The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate. ___ Willingham reported from Charleston, W.Va. Schreiner reported from Frankfort, Ky.