A military transport plane in eastern Afghanistan, C-130, has been shot down at about midnight local time on Friday (1930 GMT Thursday) and 11 people including six US soldiers were killed in the crash. NATO also confirmed the news. The Taliban claimed to have shot down the plane. “Our mujahideen have shot down a four-engine US aircraft in Jalalabad,” posted Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid on Twitter informing the same.
Most of the NATO combat troops pulled out of Afghanistan last year but a small body remains, including approximately 10,000 American soldiers. The US soldiers, along with other NATO troops and private contractors, are focusing on training Afghanistan’s national security forces. The contractors died in the C-130 crash had been working for “Resolute Support”, the NATO-led training mission.
Jalalabad is situated on a key route from the Pakistani border region to Kabul, and it has been the scene of repeated attacks in recent years. In December 2012, Taliban suicide bombers killed at least five people in an hours-long battle at the airport, the third attack on it that year.
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