WASHINGTON: A US military transport plane crashed at an airfield in Afghanistan, killing all 14 people on board, the US military said on Friday, describing the crash as an accident.

The cause of the crash at Jalalabad airfield was under investigation, a spokesman said, refusing to rule out the possibility that there might be dead or wounded on the ground.

Six US military service members and five civilian contractors who were employed by the US-led international force in Afghanistan were killed in the crash. Three Afghan nationals also were killed.

A spokesman for the Taliban militant movement said its fighters had shot down the aircraft.

Zabihullah Mujahid said on Twitter that “15 invaders and a number of slave soldiers were killed”.

But the US military said there were no reports of enemy fire at the time. A statement from the 455th Air Expeditionary Wing at Bagram Airfield described it as “an accident”, without offering details.

The crash came hours after Afghan troops pushed into the centre of Kunduz city on Thursday amid fierce clashes with Taliban militants.

The number of US deaths in Afghanistan has fallen sharply after the United States wrapped up its formal combat mission last year, although US special forces and US air strikes were involved in this week’s counter-offensive in Kunduz.

In 2011, Taliban militants shot down a US military Chinook helicopter, killing all 38 people on board.

Published in Dawn, October 3rd , 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play