Taliban say mystery crash in Afghanistan was US aircraft

A US military aircraft crashed in eastern Afghanistan today, a Taliban spokesman and Afghan journalist affiliated with the militant group say.

Tariq Ghazniwal, a journalist in the area, says that he saw the burning aircraft. In an exchange on Twitter, he tells The Associated Press that he saw two bodies and the front of the aircraft was badly burned. He adds that the aircraft’s body and tail were hardly damaged. His information cannot be independently verified.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid says a US Air Force plane crashed in the Ghazni province. He claims the crash killed “lots” of US service members. The militant group often exaggerates casualty figures.

Ghazniwal says the crash site was about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) from a US military base. Local Taliban have deployed to protect the crash site, he says, and several other militants are combing the nearby village for two people they say survived the crash.

The Taliban controls much of the Ghazni province and has total control over the local area of the crash.

Ghazniwal says the site is near a village called Sado Khelo, in the Deh Yak district. He also says the crash occurred soon after 1 p.m. local time, but residents in the area did not report a loud crashing noise. He can’t say whether the aircraft had been shot down but “the crash was not loud.”

US Army Maj. Beth Riordan, a spokeswoman for US Central Command, declines to comment when told about the Taliban claim. She earlier acknowledged American military officials are investigating reports of a crash in Afghanistan. She says that it remains unclear whose aircraft was involved in the crash.

— AP