The crash happened in the Taliban-controlled Sado Khel area of the Deh Yak district in Ghazni province, the Taliban’s spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed said.
“A special American aircraft which was flying over Afghanistan for an intelligence mission was tactically shot down by the Taliban,” Mujahed said. “All on board including high-ranking CIA officers were killed.”
According to unnamed Russian intelligence sources quoted by Veterans Today, the downed plane was the mobile CIA command for Michael D’Andrea, head of The Central Intelligence Agency’s Iran Mission Center. And all of the equipment and documents were now allegedly in Taliban hands.
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Furthermore, D’Andrea was a major figure in the search for Osama bin Laden, as well as the American drone strike targeted killing campaign.
He was allegedly the one behind the drone strike that killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani and was the most prominent figure of the CIA intelligence in the Middle East.
The US Forces in Afghanistan spokesperson Col. Sonny Leggett confirmed that the Bombardier E-11 crashed in the Ghazni province, but said that the cause was under investigation and that there were no indications enemy fire downed it.
He also denied any claims that other aircraft had been shot down.
Appears we have lost an aircraft,” General David Goldfein, the U.S. Air Force chief of staff, told reporters in Washington. “We don’t know the status of the crew.”
Following the crash on January 27th, Afghanistan’s Civil Aviation Authority provided some details.
“The plane was apparently dispatched for military operations and it took off from Afghanistan territory,” said Ghulam Masoom Massumi, the director of air traffic management at the authority, by phone. “The military plane was not a cargo plane.” Massumi added.