US suffers first casualty in war The US suffered the first casualties in its war against Afghanistan when two US troops died in a helicopter crash in the Baluchistan province of Pakistan. A Pentagon statement said it was an accident and did not identify the soldiers. "The helicopter was involved in a search and rescue operation as part of the logistical support Pakistan is providing (for the US military campaign)", a military official was quoted as saying. The sources would not say if the helicopter was on its way to or from Afghanistan when it came down, killing the two us military personnel and injuring an unknown number of people. However, Taliban Education Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said he did not rule out the possibility that it had been shot down by Taliban forces. Meanwhile, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said the US is providing the Northern Alliance assistance, including ammunition and food. He set an endpoint for the US military operation in Afghanistan, saying: "the military role will be over there when the Taliban and the Al Qaeda are gone. That's what this is about." Backing away from an earlier Pentagon assertion that Taliban defences had been "eviscerated," he said, "it would be unwise to think that the outcome is determined. It's not." The US commandos returned to base after the raid on Friday in Afghanistan. An official speaking on conditions of anonymity would provide no details on the operation except to say it was carried out overnight and that the commandos are now safely outside Afghan airspace. Officials had earlier confirmed that special forces were in Northern and Southern Afghanistan, searching for Taliban targets to strike and searching for Osama bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda lieutenants. The CBS television claimed that up to 200 US Army Rangers were attacking a Taliban target in Southern Afghanistan, but refused to divulge the location. The use of a small number of US troops in Afghanistan marks a shift to a broader range of military activities - overt and covert - that the US President George Bush says is necessary to win the war. Bush, in Shanghai for a world summit, however, refused to confirm US forces were in Afghanistan, but he said "let me reiterate what I've told the American people and the world. We will use whatever means are necessary to achieve our objective." The US ground attacks have seen renewed bids by the beleaguered Taliban asking for truce with the Northern Alliance. Taliban sent a delegation with the truce offer across the front line to the opposition Northern Alliance to request a truce but were rebuffed, an Opposition leader said. "A delegation of several people met recently with authorities of the United Front (Northern Alliance) close to the front line near Kabul,'' said Kharim Khalili, leader of the Hezb-i-wahdat Shia group in the multi-ethnic alliance. "Their offer was to have a truce with us and to join forces to fight off the attacks,'' he said. And added that the offer had been rejected. The proposal was the clearest sign so far of the pressure on the Taliban as US Forces pound their military positions, and the hardline militia have few sophisticated weapons with which to retaliate. It also marks a serious loss of face for the Taliban to turn to its fiercest foes for help as it faces the prospect of a devastating defeat. In a delayed bid to drum up some kind of support from Pakistan, top Taliban minister and commander of the militia's army Jalaluddin Haqqani visited Islamabad. Haqqani denied reports that he was planning to defect and claimed he was in Islamabad to assess Pak policy in the wake of US bombardment.