KABUL: Afghan security forces were unable to reach the site of Monday’s US military aircraft crash in a Taliban-controlled area of Ghazni province, officials told Arab News on Tuesday.
The US military said on Monday that one of its E-11A aircraft, which was on a mission, went down in Deh Yak district, some 120 kilometers southwest of Kabul.
While the Taliban claimed responsibility for shooting down the plane, the military said it was investigating the incident.
“The Taliban have mined the area, security forces could not make it to the site to retrieve the bodies and recover the aircraft last evening. The Taliban had laid an ambush as security forces tried to reach the site,” Nasir Ahmad Faqiri, head of Ghazni’s provincial council, told Arab News over the phone.
He added that other US aircraft had attempted to land in the area overnight, but could not retrieve the bodies or the plane’s wreckage due to bad weather.
“Afghan and foreign forces are preparing a joint plan to go to the site to see what they can do,” Aref Noori, a spokesman for the Ghazni governor, said in a message.
Authorities have yet to determine how many passengers and crew were on board.
Several members of the provincial council said they had heard from locals that four people had escaped from the plane soon after it came down. However, the information could not be confirmed by the US military or other officials.
The crash comes amid a push by the Taliban and US diplomats to restart peace talks aimed at ending an 18-year conflict in Afghanistan.