Kabul, Afghanistan: Taliban have claimed to shot down an American C-130 transport plane, killing 12 servicemen while United States has confirmed crashing of C-130 but refused to accept that transport plane was shot down by Taliban.
“Our mujahideen have shot down a four-engine US aircraft in Jalalabad,” claimed Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid while talking to AFP news agency. He further claimed that 15 servicemen were killed in the incident.
Sources from Jalalabad claim that plane was hit just it was leaving skies of airport adjacent area. However US Army believes it was just a crash due to technical reasons.
While US Army spokesperson Col. Brian Tribus claimed that C-130 plane crashed shortly after midnight local time (3:30 p.m. ET) at Jalalabad Airport and reason of crash was still unknown.
It may be mentioned that four-engine turboprop aircraft, the C-130 Hercules is most popular plane to transport personnel and cargo in US Army.
RT News mentioned that Pentagon sources have ruled out the possibility that the C-130 which crashed was shot down, while the 455th Air Expeditionary Wing at Bagram Airfield described the crash as “an accident.”
A US defense official said that among the dead were several US troop members and contracted civilians whose nationalities have not been disclosed.
According to US military spokesman, six US service members and five civilian contractors on board died in the crash. He did not mention how many casualties were on the ground where C130 was crashed or shot down.
The official cause of the C-130 crash has not yet been determined, but officials said that there had been no reports of enemy fire at the time of the incident.
It may be mentioned that US Air Force operates Jalalabad Air Base adjacent to Jalalbad airport since war on terror started in year 2001.
Though ISAF forces have withdrawn from Afghanistan but 9,800 American troops are still working in Afghanistan for the Resolute Support mission. In March it was agreed that troop levels would drop to 5,500 in September for the remainder of the year and most of 2016.
