The Afghan Taliban announced Monday (January 27th) that the plane that crashed in Ghazni province in eastern Afghanistan earlier today was an American military aircraft.

"The plane, which was on an intelligence mission, was shot down in the Sado Khel region, in the Deh Yak district," said their spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid in a statement. Among the occupants, who all died, were senior officers, he added.

The Afghan presidency had previously confirmed, without further details, that a plane had crashed in Ghazni province around 1 p.m.

American forces in Kabul, contacted by AFP, did not comment.

Neither American nor Afghan?

A senior Afghan Defense Ministry official involved in the investigation assured that no US official had been killed and that the cause remains to be determined. In Kabul, it is also claimed that no American aircraft or NATO forces had crashed.

The Afghan Ministry of Defense, for its part, indicated that the aircraft did not belong to the Afghan forces. The Afghan Civil Aviation Authority (ACAA) said that "no commercial aircraft crashes have been recorded".

A foreign company?

According to two members of the authorities of Ghazni province, the plane could belong to a foreign company.

According to the Taliban, the aircraft "flew on a surveillance mission". The type of the device corresponds to those used in the country by the US Air Force for electronic surveillance.

With AFP and Reuters

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