A unmanned aircraft of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has come down in southern Afghanistan due to a technical failure, the alliance said on Saturday.
“We can confirm that a small ISAF remotely-piloted aircraft did crash in Ghazni as a result of a mechanical issue,” the ISAF media office said in response to an email from Pajhwok Afghan News.
The multinational force said it had no operational reports to indicate that any civilians were harmed or property damaged as a result of the crash in the Taliban-infested Andar district. Meanwhile, rebel spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the Taliban shot down the plane during a fight with ISAF troops in the area late on Friday. He gave no more details.
Another UAS went down in the suburbs of the Afghan city of Balkh, located 324 kilometers (201 miles) north of the capital Kabul on Monday, provincial officials told Press TV. The Swedish Armed Forces web site reports that a Swedish-operated Shadow had engine failure and was forced to make an emergency landing near the town of Balkh at six o’clock, local time, on Sunday morning. The aircraft was damaged and has been transported back to the Swedish camp in Mazar-e-Sharif, where the majority of the Swedish workforce is located.
Taliban militants claimed on Sunday that they had shot down a third unmanned US reconnaissance aircraft in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad.
Sources: Press TV, Pajhwok Afghan News, Swedish Armed Forces