President Ashraf Ghani, First Vice President Amrullah Saleh and other high-ranking officials attended the funeral ceremony of eight Afghan Air Force pilots and personnel on Thursday morning.

The AAF service members were killed in Helmand in the early hours of Wednesday morning when two military helicopters collided.

Ghani and Saleh commended the dedication and commitment of those killed and said government will always support families of the martyred.

The two helicopters had reportedly dropped off reinforcement troops in the embattled province and were evacuating wounded soldiers when they collided.

The Ministry of Defense said on Wednesday that helicopters had crashed due to technical issues while taking off but that the incident was under investigation.