Taliban attacks American cargo plane in Afghanistan; 11 dead

Taliban has admitted shooting the U.S. military airplane C-130 cargo that has crashed early Friday at Jalalabad Airport in eastern Afghanistan, claiming the lives of 11 people.

The Air Expeditionary Wing’s spokesperson confirmed that there were five civilians and six U.S. service members who died in the incident. “The crew and passengers were killed,” U.S. Army Colonel Brian Tribus said, reports ABC.

The 455th Air Expeditionary Wing at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan said the plane was assigned to the airlift squadron of the 774th Expeditionary Wing. The cause of the crash is under investigation, the report released by the wing said.

Built by Lockheed Martin, the C-130 Hercules is a cargo airplane backed by four turboprop engines and used by the military to carry troops and heavy army equipment. The cargo's design helps it to land and take off even from rough strips and hence is conveniently used by the American military troops in enemy-surrounded areas.

The spokesperson said earlier that there were no reports of enemy firing when the plane crashed. No more information regarding the examination of the plane crash was immediately available.

A total of approximately 1,000 coalition forces are in eastern Afghanistan along with 40,000 Afghan troops. The coalition forces also include the U.S. and Polish forces, NATO stated. In Afghanistan, U.S. controls around 9,800 military troops, which is expected to decrease at the end of 2015.

President Barack Obama has promised that only a small force will be left in Afghanistan by the end of 2016.

A few months ago in July, an Indonesian military Hercules plane crashed in northern Indonesia at a residential area of Medan, leading to more than 140 deaths. Most of the people killed in the plane crash were believed to be the relatives of military men with more number of women passengers.

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