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3rd LD Writethru: 12 killed in Indonesian army helicopter crash in Sulawesi

Xinhua, March 21, 2016 Adjust font size:

An Indonesian army helicopter went down in Poso of Sulawesi province on Sunday, killing 12 military men and leaving one missing, Indonesian Armed Forces Spokesman Colonel Berlin G said.

"12 have been found, all of them dead. Another is still missing," the spokesman told Xinhua by phone.

The Bell 412 EP chopper crashed at 17:55 p.m. local time in Kasiguncu village of Poso when it was conducting its routine task, Colonel I Made Sutia, spokesman of the military command in the province said.

"Poor weather condition was blamed for the accident," he told Xinhua by phone from the province.

Poso is where Indonesia's military have been conducting operations to hunt for the country's most wanted high profile terrorist figure Santoso and his followers who are the backers of the global IS group in Indonesia and have carried out or are linked to several deadly strikes in the country.

Colonel Made said most of the crash victims were high- ranking military officers and one of them was military commander of the province, Colonel Infantry Saiful Anwar.

All of the victims have been rushed to the Poso General Hospital, he added. Endit