GHAZNI, Afghanistan: The Taliban claimed a US forces aircraft crashed ineastern Afghanistan on Monday hours after a plane went down into an areacontrolled largely by the insurgents.
The militants claim comes as confusion continued to surround the incident,with Afghan officials and airliners denying that any of their aircraft aremissing while Nato have yet to officially comment on the crash. Localmedia, however, reported that 83 people were on board the plane when itwent down.
“An aircraft of American occupiers has crashed in Ghazni province,” Talibanspokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a Pashto-language statement, addingthat all the crew members onboard had been killed.
Confusion also clouded the Taliban statement, however, with one versionsaying the plane crashed while another version said the insurgents broughtdown the craft. Large swathes of rural areas in Ghazni province arecontrolled or under the influence of Taliban militants, making accessdifficult for officials.
But ministry of defence spokesman Rohullah Ahmadzai said that the plane didnot belong to Afghan forces or the country’s intelligence agency. Theministry’s statement comes hours after reports on social media were rifewith suggestions that the plane was from state-owned Ariana Afghan Airlines– however the company said the rumours were “not true”. “All the flightsof Ariana Afghan Airlines have been completed normally,” a statement on thecarrier’s verified Facebook page read.
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The Civil Aviation Authority of Afghanistan also denied reports that theplane was a commercial flight. “According to our information from theControl Tower and Traffic Regulatory Authority, no commercial airline crashhas been recorded. And Ariana Afghan Airlines have reassured us that alltheir planes are accounted for,” said the organisation.
Footage published by a Taliban-affiliated account showed a people speakingPashto walking around a crashed plane that looked similar to a craft usedby US forces in Afghanistan for communications purposes.
Crashes involving military flights, particularly helicopters, are common inAfghanistan where inclement weather and creaky aircraft are often pressedto their limits in the war-torn country — and where insurgents have beenknown to target helicopters. The last civilian flight to crash was in May2010, when an ageing Pamir Airways plane went down in bad weather during ascheduled flight to Kabul from the northern province of Kunduz. -APP/AFP
