WORLD BRIEFING / VENEZUELA
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Sixteen Venezuelan soldiers and a civilian were killed when a military helicopter crashed near the Colombian border, the state news agency reported. A brigadier general was among those killed.
President Hugo Chavez said the soldiers were patrolling the 1,300-mile border separating Venezuela and Colombia when shortly after midday the local military base lost contact with the Mi-35 helicopter. The helicopter crashed near the town of El Alto de Rubio, the state-run Bolivarian News Agency reported.
Two pilots and the crew were killed. Army Brig. Gen. Domingo Alberto Feneite and Cristian Velazquez, a civilian, were among the dead, according to the state news agency.
Neither Chavez nor the military mentioned a cause for the crash.
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