Haiti ? Four soldiers died in the fiery crash of a Spanish military helicopter Friday in the rugged mountains of eastern Haiti, the United Nations said.

The soldiers were part of Spain’s effort to help in Haiti’s recovery and reconstruction following the cataclysmic Jan. 12 earthquake, which the government says killed as many as 300,000 people.

The helicopter, identified by Spanish media as a Bell AB-212, crashed in the Fond Verrettes area about 30 miles from Port-au-Prince near the border with the Dominican Republic.