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Spy plane shot down over
Afghanistan by Taliban forces, official says
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - Taliban
forces shot down an unmanned spy plane in northern Afghanistan on Saturday, a
Taliban official said. Abdul Salam Zaeef, the hard-line Taliban's ambassador to
Pakistan, said the aircraft was shot down over Tashgurgan Pass in Afghanistan's
northern Samangan province by Taliban soldiers armed with Russian-made
anti-aircraft weapons. "We are still trying to ascertain what country this plane
belongs to," Zaeef said in an interview. The Afghan Islamic Press, an Afghan
news agency based in Islamabad, first reported that it was a U.S. spy plane,
then said it wasn't sure which country it was from. In Washington, a U.S.
official refused to comment. "As the secretary of defense has said, we will not
discuss any operational issues," said Lt. Col. Mike Milord, a Pentagon
spokesman. "We will not respond to each and every statement of the Taliban." The
aircraft could have entered northern Afghanistan from Russia or one of the
nearby Central Asian states, such as bordering Uzbekistan. The reported downing
of the spy plane came as U.S. forces prepared for a possible attack on
Afghanistan targeting Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in the Sept. 11
terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in
Washington. For years, Taliban have given sanctuary to the millionaire Saudi
refugee, who allegedly has masterminded terrorist attacks around the world,
using camps to train assailants. If the spy plane was downed and it did belong
to U.S. forces, it would be the first time that an American military aircraft
has been attacked in Afghanistan. The report came as the United Arab Emirates
announced it would cut ties with the Taliban. That left only two countries -
Saudi Arabia and Pakistan - that continued to recognize the hard-line Islamic
militia as the legitimate government of Afghanistan. Pakistan's ties with
Taliban were recently strained by Islamabad's offer to help U.S. forces in an
attack on Afghanistan by providing them access to its air space and land. In
another development, heavy fighting was reported Saturday between the Taliban
militia and opposition forces in northern Afghanistan. Taliban's official
Bakhtar news agency in Kabul said that their forces shot down an opposition
helicopter on Saturday in the same province where the spy plane reportedly was.
The helicopter was hit in the Dar-e-suf district during a battle being waged
there. The helicopter was apparently coming from the town of Andarab in
neighboring Baghlan province, the official said. Taliban control about 95
percent of Afghanistan and have been fighting an opposition force based mostly
in the north for the last five years. Dar-e-suf has been the scene of the
heaviest fighting between the Taliban and the opposition this year. Both sides
are equipped with antiquated Russian fighter jets and helicopter gunships, most
of them leftovers from the 10-year Soviet occupation that ended in 1989 with the
Soviets' withdrawal. In recent years, the opposition has received new
helicopters from Russia.
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