Video: Taleban say mystery crash in Afghanistan was US aircraft

Kabul - US army is investigating the crash in Afghanistan.

A US military aircraft crashed in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, a Taleban spokesman and Afghan journalist affiliated with the militant group said.

Tariq Ghazniwal, a journalist in the area, said that he saw the burning aircraft. In an exchange on Twitter, he told the Associated Press that he saw two bodies and the front of the aircraft was badly burned. He added that the aircraft's body and tail were hardly damaged. His information could not be independently verified.

Taleban 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 (6.2 miles) from a US military base. Local Taleban have deployed to protect the crash site, he said, and several other militants were combing the nearby village for two people they say survived the crash.

The Taleban control much of the Ghazni province and have total control over the local area of the crash.

Ghazniwal said the site was near a village called Sado Khelo, in the Deh Yak district. He also said the crash occurred soon after 1 pm local time, but residents in the area did not report a loud crashing noise. He couldn't say whether the aircraft had been shot down but "the crash was not loud."

US Army Major Beth Riordan, a spokeswoman for US Central Command, declined to comment when told about the Taleban 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.

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.

Colloquially referred to by the US military as "Wi-Fi in the sky," the BACN system is used in areas where communications are otherwise difficult, elevating signals above obstacles like mountains. The system is in regular use in Afghanistan.

Local Afghan officials had said earlier on Monday that a passenger plane 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.

The conflicting accounts could not immediately be reconciled. The number of people on board and their fate was not immediately known, nor was the cause of the crash.

Arif Noori, spokesman for the provincial governor, said the plane went down around 1:10 p.m. local time (8:40 a.m. GMT) in Deh Yak district, some 130 kilometers (80 miles) southwest of the capital Kabul. He said the crash site is in territory controlled by the Taleban. Two provincial council members also confirmed the crash.

But the acting director for Ariana Airlines, Mirwais Mirzakwal, dismissed reports that one the company's aircraft had crashed. The state-owned airline also released a statement on its website saying all its aircraft were operational and safe.

UPDATE: Afghanistan crash.

Video has now emerged showing the USAF 'stars & bars' on the engine and part serial number '11-9...'. USAF operates four Bombardier E-11A in its Battlefield Airborne Communications Node system:
11-9001
11-9355
11-9358
12-9506 pic.twitter.com/lIAPx8cccb
- Airport Webcams (@AirportWebcams) January 27, 2020