A US spy plane has crashed in a Taliban-held region of Afghanistan with the loss of everyone on board, according to witnesses and local officials. The Taliban claimed it had shot down the aircraft, which plunged into mountains in a remote district of Ghazni province, southwest of Kabul, although this was disputed by military experts. Video purportedly from the crash site showed an aircraft destroyed in heavy snow. US Air Force markings visible on the smoking remains of the fuselage appeared to confirm that it was an E-11A surveillance aircraft deployed for battlefield communications by the US in Afghanistan. The condition of the wreckage, with the roof of the aircraft blown out but much of the fuselage and engines intact, led observers to speculate that.
