Oct. 26 (Bloomberg) -- At least 14 Americans were killed today in two separate crashes involving helicopters in Afghanistan, NATO said. Hostile fire doesn’t appear to have caused either incident, the alliance said.

Seven U.S. soldiers and three American civilians were killed when a helicopter crashed as a joint U.S.-Afghan force withdrew after a drug raid on a compound in western Afghanistan, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization said in a statement. Fourteen Afghan soldiers, 11 U.S. military personnel and one American civilian were injured in the crash.

More than a dozen enemy fighters were killed in an exchange of fire at the compound, which was used for narcotics trafficking, NATO said. The cause of the crash “is not believed to be from enemy action,” the statement said.

The Taliban claimed it shot down the craft and that 24 foreign soldiers were killed, Agence France-Presse reported, citing a spokesman for the group, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi.

The three civilians who were killed were U.S. embassy staff working for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, AFP reported.

Earlier in the day, two helicopters collided over southern Afghanistan, killing four U.S. troops, NATO said, adding that “it is confirmed that hostile fire was not involved.”

A total of 267 U.S. troops have been killed this year in Afghanistan, out of a total of 435 deaths among coalition soldiers, according to icasualties.org, which tracks combat deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq.

To contact the reporter on this story: Gregory Viscusi in Paris at gviscusi@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 26, 2009 09:06 EDT