NATO helicopter shot down in Afghanistan

Four U.S. soldiers are killed in the attack in volatile Helmand province. A roadside bomb leaves another coalition service member dead and brings the number of troops killed in June to 29.

A medevac chopper lifts off from Camp Nathan Smith in Kandahar, southern

Insurgents shot down a NATO helicopter in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday and killed four U.S. soldiers while another coalition service member died in a roadside bombing.

The attacks made the first nine days of June one of the deadliest spans this year for Western troops mired in the nearly nine-year war against the Taliban insurgency.

The five coalition service members were killed in the country's volatile Helmand province, part of the Taliban's heartland in the south and a key focus of President Obama's troop buildup aimed at crippling the insurgency and forcing it to negotiate an end to the war.

So far this month, 29 coalition troops have been killed in Afghanistan, a rate of more than three deaths a day.