The U.S. military is looking into reports of a plane crash in part of Afghanistan controlled by the Taliban.
Pictures circulating on social media after the Monday crash show what might be the wreckage of a Bombardier E-11A, an electronic surveillance aircraft used by the United States in Afghanistan. Some of the images showed the tail end of a jet with the U.S. Air Force insignia.
The Department of Defense has neither confirmed nor denied that one of its planes crashed.
“We are aware of the reports and are investigating,” a Pentagon official told Military Times. “At this point, we cannot confirm it is a DOD asset.”
Provincial government spokesman Arif Noori told CBS News that the bodies of two pilots were found at the crash site but did not mention other casualties. Noori would not confirm if the plane belonged to the U.S.
Initial reports claimed that the plane was a passenger jet from state-run Ariana Afghan Airlines, although the airline has denied that and said all of its flights are “operating normally.”
Although the Taliban immediately claimed it had downed the jet after images of the crash emerged, the group has claimed responsibility for other events that it was not involved with. It is still not clear to officials what caused the crash, and poor weather in the region was making it difficult to investigate.
