Taliban claim to bring down US surveillance plane
A US military aircraft crashed in Taliban-controlled territory in central Afghanistan yesterday, an American official confirmed, after hours of contradictory reports from local officials triggered fears of a passenger plane crash.
The surveillance plane crashed in Ghazni province’s Deh Yak district, an area under Taliban control. It was unknown how many people were on board or whether there were survivors.
‘‘While the cause of [the] crash is under investigation, there are no indications the crash was caused by enemy fire. We will provide additional information as it becomes available,’’ said Colonel Sonny Leggett, a spokesman for US forces in Afghanistan, in a statement yesterday.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed on Twitter that an ‘‘enemy intelligence aircraft’’ crashed and subsequently told The Post that ‘‘our mujahideen [fighters] tactically crashed the plane.’’
He did not explain what tactics were purportedly used to bring down the plane.
Mujahid’s claim that Taliban fighters caused the crash comes just weeks after Taliban leaders presented US negotiators with a proposal to reduce violence and restart peace talks.
The plane was a US Bombardier E-11A, an electronics surveillance aircraft that helps boost tactical communications on the battlefield.
The province where it crashed is one of Afghanistan’s most volatile, with Taliban forces controlling or contesting several of its districts. In 2018, the insurgents overran Ghazni’s provincial capital, and that same year a Talibanclaimed roadside bomb killed three American soldiers there.
Ahmad Khan Seerat, Ghazni’s police spokesman, said Afghan special forces were dispatched to the scene.
Video footage first posted to social media by a Taliban-linked account appears to show the charred fuselage of an US E-11A.
The white plane in the video bears a distinctive star emblem on the engine paired with sky and dark blue stripes across its body.
The Post could not independently verify the location of the crash in the video.
– Washington Post