Plane Crash Kills 7 Marines in Pakistan

WASHINGTON — A U.S. refueling plane crashed into a mountain in Pakistan, killing all seven Marines aboard Wednesday in a day of setbacks for the Pentagon that included the release--despite U.S. protests--of three top Taliban officials by their Afghan captors.

As workers made their way toward the wreckage of the KC-130 tanker, witnesses described flames rising from the crash site near Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan.

Defense officials said the incident is under investigation but appeared to be the result of an accident rather than enemy fire.

“It is a tough, dangerous business over there,” Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said. “They’re doing difficult things, and they’re doing them darned well, and it just breaks your heart.”

Late Wednesday, the Pentagon identified the victims as Capt. Matthew W. Bancroft, 29, of Redding, Calif., the command pilot; Capt. Daniel G. McCollum, 29, of Richland, S.C., the co-pilot; Gunnery Sgt. Stephen L. Bryson, 36, of Montgomery, Ala.; Staff Sgt. Scott N. Germosen, 37, of Queens, N.Y.; Sgt. Nathan P. Hays, 21, of Lincoln, Wash.; Lance Cpl. Bryan P. Bertrand, 23, of Coos Bay, Ore.; and Sgt. Jeannette L. Winters, 25, of DuPage County, Ill.

President Bush offered his support for the Marines’ loved ones. “Our hearts and prayers go out to the families of the soldiers,” he said. “But I want to remind them that the cause that we are now engaged in is just and noble. The cause is freedom. And this nation will not rest until we’ve achieved our objectives.”

The tanker crash occurred as an Afghan warlord negotiated the hand-over of seven Taliban leaders who had surrendered, then confiscated their weapons and vehicles and sent them home, despite Washington’s repeated requests that ranking Taliban members be handed over to U.S. control.

The released Taliban members included three top officials: the much-feared justice minister, Nooruddin Turabi; Defense Minister Mullah Obaidulla; and the minister of mines and industry, Mullah Saadudin Sayed.

The Pentagon would have liked to have added them to the 368 pro-Taliban soldiers in U.S. custody as of Wednesday: 306 in Kandahar; 38 at Bagram air base north of the capital, Kabul; 16 in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif; and eight aboard the amphibious assault ship Bataan. Nearly all are expected to be sent soon to the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where they could appear before military tribunals.

“Obviously, individuals of that stature in the Taliban leadership are of great interest to the United States, and we would expect them to be turned over,” Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had said Tuesday.

On Wednesday, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said: “We have said before that we believe that senior Taliban officials should be taken into custody. We would expect that to be the case with these individuals. And I’m sure we’ll be looking into this matter further.”

The incident again revealed a difference in priorities between Afghans and Americans. Senior Pentagon officials have privately complained that their Afghan counterparts either have apparently cut surrender deals that explicitly allow Taliban leaders to escape or have simply looked the other way as the enemies, in some cases fellow ethnic tribesmen, flee.

Twice, U.S. officials were told that Afghan warlords had negotiated the surrender of Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, only to find that he was not among those who gave themselves up. A 14-year-old boy blamed for the death of Sgt. 1st Class Nathan Ross Chapman last week also escaped his Afghan captors.

Clearly aware of U.S. consternation over the latest release, Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Omar Samad said Wednesday night that the interim government of Prime Minister Hamid Karzai is investigating the circumstances of the surrender. But he reiterated the interim government’s stand that not all members of the Taliban regime should be subject to interrogation by other nations.

Although many U.S. troops are now focused on detaining and interrogating prisoners, fighter jets kept up their attacks on an expansive underground cave and bunker complex in mountainous Zhawar Kili al Badr in eastern Afghanistan.

The air war continued amid growing evidence of insecurity and instability in many parts of the country. Karzai issued a dramatic order seemingly designed to reassure increasingly nervous residents of Kabul of their safety and also assert his new government’s authority. He ordered all armed men--thousands of whom stand listlessly on street corners of the capital, AK-47s slung over their shoulders--to leave the city and return to their barracks on the outskirts of Kabul within 72 hours or face arrest.

In November, negotiations near Bonn, Germany, strongly recommended such a move. But the interim government had resisted, fearing an uprising and saying there weren’t enough barracks to house all the armed men--soldiers once loyal to a variety of warlords, and many now with little oversight as they patrol the capital.

British peacekeepers leading the International Security Assistance Force in Kabul were seen throughout the city Wednesday. One unit responded to a false alarm about possible unexploded ordnance near the Kabul River, while another was spotted near the homes of several ranking government officials, patrolling in tandem with Afghan troops.

In light of the tanker crash, airborne accidents have killed more Americans than enemy fire. Before Wednesday’s incident, 10 Americans had died in the Afghan conflict; two of the deaths were a result of enemy action.

The troops aboard the tanker were apparently from one of a few Marine units stationed in the region. Those in the region include 2,000 members of the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit from Camp Pendleton, who sailed from San Diego on Dec. 1.

The KC-130 Hercules tankers used by the Marines can refuel jets and helicopters in flight or on the ground. They are also used to drop cargo and paratroopers and can land on short airstrips.

In another incident, a Viking sea patrol aircraft made a crash landing on the carrier Theodore Roosevelt in the northern Arabian Sea after its landing gear collapsed. No one was injured.

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Hendren reported from Washington and Slater from Kabul. Times staff writer Tony Perry in San Diego contributed to this report.