Taliban claims, the mystery crash in Afghanistan was US aircraft with service members
Tariq Ghazniwal, a journalist in the area of crash, said that he saw the burning aircraft. In an talk on Twitter, he told The Associated Press that he saw two bodies and the front of the aircraft was badly burned. He added that aircraft’s body and tail were hardly damaged. His information could not be independently verified.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said a US airforce plane crashed in the Ghazni province. He claimed the crash killed “lots” of US service members. The militant group often exaggerates casualty figures.
Ghazniwal said the crash site was about 10 kilometers from a US military base of Afghanistan.
US Army Maj Beth Riordan, a spokeswoman for US Central Command, declined to comment when told about the Taliban claim. She earlier acknowledged American military officials were investigating reports of a crash in Afghanistan. She said that it remained unclear whose aircraft was involved in the crash.
سقوط هواپیمای خارجی در افغانستان
در پی اعلام خبر سقوط یک هواپیما در ولایت #غزنی، ویدئویی منتشر شده که یک هواپیمای درحال سوختن را نشان میدهد. بنا بر برخی شواهد، این هواپیما که در ویدئو دیده میشود، متعلق به نیروی هوایی آمریکاست. pic.twitter.com/BkhIVqKZnR— BBC NEWS فارسی (@bbcpersian) January 27, 2020
Riordan declined to immediately comment further.
However, pictures on social media purportedly from the crash site showed what could be the remains of a Bombardier E-11A aircraft, which the US military uses for electronic surveillance over Afghanistan.
Images on social media purportedly of the crashed plane showed an aircraft bearing US Air Force markings similar to other E-11A surveillance aircraft photographed by aviation enthusiasts. Visible registration numbers on the plane also appeared to match those aircraft.
The so-called Battlefield Airborne Communications Node can be carried on unmanned or crewed aircraft like the E-11A. It is used by the military to extend the range of radio signals and can be used to convert the output of one device to another, such as connecting a radio to a telephone.
Local Afghan officials had said earlier on Monday that a passenger place from Afghanistan’s Ariana Airlines had crashed in the Taliban-held area of the eastern Ghazni province. However, Ariana Airlines told The Associated Press that none of its planes had crashed in Afghanistan.