13 killed in military helicopter crash in Kazakhstan

A military helicopter has crashed in southwestern Kazakhstan, killing all 13 servicemen on board, the defence ministry said Thursday.

The ministry said the helicopter went down on March 27 in the Zhalagash region in southern Kazakhstan, east of the Aral Sea.

The crash involving the Russian-made Mi-8 aircraft occurred on Wednesday, the ministry said in a statement.

"13 servicemen were killed... while performing their military duty," it said.

Kazakhstan's new president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev tweeted that he had ordered an investigation into the crash.

A Soviet-era workhorse first built in the 1960s, the Mi-8 helicopter is widely used to transport passengers and supplies to remote sites.

It has been involved in a number of recent accidents. In August last year, 18 people were killed in a crash in Siberia.

The defence ministry said on Thursday that the families of those killed would receive compensation.

Tokayev became Kazakhstan's president last week following the shock resignation of long-ruling 78-year-old strongman Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has retained key decision-making powers in the Central Asian country of 18 million.