In brief: Peacekeepers killed in crash

Fonds-Parisien, Haiti – A surveillance plane assigned to the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti crashed into a mountain Friday, killing all 11 military personnel on board, the United Nations said.

U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas in New York said the Uruguayan CASA212 aircraft went down in rugged terrain west of Fonds-Verrettes near the border with the Dominican Republic, 28 miles from the capital, Port-au-Prince.

“The aircraft was on a regular reconnaissance flight,” Montas said in a statement.

The victims were Uruguayan and Jordanian military personnel serving with the 9,000-strong U.N. force that’s been in Haiti since a 2004 rebellion.

U.S. quits post where eight died

Kabul, Afghanistan – American troops have abandoned an isolated base where eight U.S. soldiers were killed in an assault by insurgents last weekend, military officials said Friday.

The departure from the base in the Kamdesh district of Nuristan province, in northeastern Afghanistan, was part of a previously planned “repositioning” of troops, NATO’s International Security Assistance Force said in a statement.

The Taliban, in a statement, claimed it had driven the Americans out.