Taliban claims American plane 'crashed' in eastern Afghanistan

Taliban claimed a US forces aircraft crashed in eastern Afghanistan Monday hours after a plane went down into an area controlled largely by insurgents.

militants claim comes as confusion continued to surround incident, with Afghan officials and airliners denying that any of ir aircraft are missing while NATO have yet to officially comment on crash.

"An aircraft of American occupiers has crashed in Ghazni province," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a Pashto-langu statement, adding that all crew members onboard had been killed.

Confusion also clouded Taliban statement, however, with one version saying plane crashed while ar version said insurgents brought down craft.

Large swas of rural areas in Ghazni province are controlled or under influence of Taliban militants, making access difficult for officials.

But ministry of defense spokesman Rohullah Ahmadzai told AFP that plane did t belong to Afghan forces or country's intelligence ncy.

ministry's statement comes hours after reports on social media were rife with suggestions that plane was from state-owned Ariana Afghan Airlines -- however company said rumours were "t true".

"All flights of Ariana Afghan Airlines have been completed rmally," a statement on carrier's verified Facebook p read.

Civil Aviation Authority of Afghanistan also denied reports that plane was a commercial flight.

"According to our information from Control Tower and Traffic Regulatory Authority, commercial airline crash has been recorded. And Ariana Afghan Airlines have reassured us that all ir planes are accounted for," said organisation.

Foot published by a Taliban-affiliated account showed a people speaking Pashto walking around a crashed plane that looked similar to a craft used by US forces in Afghanistan for communications purposes.

Crashes involving military flights, particularly helicopters, are common in Afghanistan where inclement wear and creaky aircraft are often pressed to ir limits in war-torn country -- and where insurgents have been kwn to target helicopters.

last civilian flight to crash was in May 2010, when an ing Pamir Airways plane went down in bad wear during a scheduled flight to Kabul from rrn province of Kunduz.

It was carrying six crew and 38 passengers when it crashed into a mountainside 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Kabul.

incident comes as Washington and Taliban continue to wrangle over a possible agreement that would see US troops begin to leave Afghanistan in return for security guarantees.

Taliban are aiming to reach a withdrawal agreement with US by end of January and are prepared to "scale down" military operations ahead of signing a deal, ir chief spokesman said earlier this month.

two sides had been negotiating deal for a year and were on brink of an anuncement in September 2019 when Trump abruptly declared process "dead", citing Taliban violence.

Talks were later restarted in December in Qatar, but paused again following an attack near US-run Bagram military base in Afghanistan.

Taliban sources told AFP earlier this month y had offered to initiate a brief ceasefire of seven to 10 days, but re was anuncement of proposal by eir party.

(Im Credit: IPA News)