The Department of Defense has identified two men killed when a reconnaissance aircraft crashed in a Taliban-held area of Afghanistan.
The Pentagon said Wednesday that Lt. Col. Paul K. Voss of Guam and Capt. Ryan S. Phaneuf of New Hampshire were killed in the Air Force E-11A plane that crashed on Monday in Afghanistan’s Ghazni province.
Voss, 46, was assigned to Headquarters Air Combat Command at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia. Phaneuf, 30, was assigned to the 37th Bomb Squadron at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota.
The area where the plane went down has largely been under Taliban control since 2015. The two were reportedly the only people in the plane when it crashed. A team was sent to recover their bodies and did not meet resistance from Taliban fighters in the area.
Although the Taliban claimed the plane was shot down, the United States said there was no indication that the aircraft was brought down by combatant fire. The crash comes as the U.S. and the Taliban continue to negotiate a possible peace deal in the region.
The Washington Examiner reached out to the NATO-led Operation Resolute Support mission for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
