Seven German servicemen were killed on Saturday and two Afghan girls were missing after a helicopter crashed into a house in Kabul, Germany's defense minister said. There was some confusion about the fate of the two girls as earlier a military spokesman at the crash scene in the Afghan capital said no children were involved. The cause of the crash was not immediately known, but officials from the 22-nation International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said they believed it may have been caused by engine trouble rather than a missile attack or other foul play.

German Defense Minister Peter Struck told reporters in Berlin: "A helicopter crashed and burned today in Kabul. There were seven crew members on board, members of the German ISAF contingent, all of whom were killed. "

The helicopter crashed into an empty house. Two Afghan girls are missing. There were no indications whatsoever of shots fired." Witnesses claimed to have seen the bodies of two children at the crash site.

But ISAF spokesman Major Gordon Mackenzie earlier told Reuters this was incorrect. "There were no children," he said, speaking from near the crash site a few miles outside Kabul. "We would have known by now."

Struck said a team of German army specialists would be sent to Kabul later on Saturday to investigate the incident.

Witnesses said the crash sent plumes of fire and smoke into the air. "The helicopter was completely destroyed," German Lieutenant-Colonel Andreas Steffan said in Kabul.

"We are waiting for our explosives ordnance people to check it over before they can lift it up, and then maybe we will find other people." He said the aircraft had been on a routine patrol. "It was very sad," Steffan said. "It is very hard, because maybe you spoke with the guy in the helicopter in the morning, then you know he's dead and will never come back."

German troops cordoned off the road leading to the crash site, among low factory buildings. A floodlight was shone onto the site, adding to the light of a nearly full moon.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said he was "greatly shaken" by the crash and would extend his deepest sympathies to the families of the victims.

"Whether husbands, fathers, sons or friends -- they were ready to do their dangerous duty in Kabul to help give the people there a better life, free of war and suppression," he said in a statement.

FLAMES SEEN FROM ENGINE

ISAF's Mackenzie said he had watched from a nearby British base as the helicopter, a single-engine Sikorski CH-53, went down.

"I saw the helicopter, it was obviously getting into trouble," Mackenzie said. "The flames appeared to be coming from the engine directly beneath the rotor."

Germany and the Netherlands will take command of the ISAF mission in Afghanistan for six months in February after Turkey's mandate expires.

The German parliament agreed on Friday to extend the ISAF mandate for its forces in Afghanistan by a year and increase the size of the contingent from 1,500 to 2,500.

In Afghanistan in March, two German soldiers and two Danes were killed and eight wounded in an explosion as they tried to dispose of two Soviet-era missiles.

Germany currently has about 9,500 troops overseas, roughly a five-fold increase in three years. German soldiers are
stationed in Afghanistan, Macedonia and in Kosovo. German soldiers are also involved in the Enduring Freedom mission fighting global terror and are stationed in the Horn of Africa and in Kuwait.

Earlier on Saturday, a U.S. soldier died of gunshot wounds when suspected al Qaeda militants fired on a patrol unit in eastern Afghanistan.

PHOTO CAPTION

Smoke rises from the site of the German military helicopter crash in Kabul December 21, 2002. Six people in the helicopter and up to eight on the ground died on Saturday when the military craft crashed just before landing at Afghan capital's airport, a defense ministry spokesman said. (Ahmad Masood/Reuters)