ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Afghanistan's ruling Taliban said on Saturday they had downed an unmanned spy plane and a helicopter in areas where opposition forces reported sweeping advances. (Read photo caption below)
Despite earlier contradictory statements, Taliban officials said they had established that their forces had downed a pilotless drone aircraft over Tashkurghan with machinegun fire as well as a helicopter near Dara-i-Suf.
Both areas are in Samangan, around 150 miles northwest of Kabul, where anti-Taliban commander General Rashid Dostum reported that his force of minority Uzbek fighters had made advances against the Taliban.
Mystery surrounded the origin of the spy plane, but a spokesman for the opposition Northern Alliance confirmed the helicopter crash -- although blaming it on a mechanical fault.
``The helicopter seems to have gone down because of technical reasons,'' said alliance spokesman Mohammad Ashraf Nadeem, adding that the fate of those on board was unknown.
The Taliban's ambassador in Islamabad, Mullah Abdul Saleem Zaeef, told Reuters the spyplane had been downed while taking pictures over northern Afghanistan.
Washington frequently uses ``drones'' to fly observation and spy missions over Iraq, but the aircraft do not generally have defensive capabilities and made up the majority of planes shot down by Baghdad since the Gulf War.
AIRSPACE CLOSED
A Pentagon spokesman in Washington would not comment on the report.
``It made two or three rounds in the area before being shot down. It was probably taking pictures,'' ambassador Zaeef said, adding that it was not badly damaged in the crash.
He said people who had inspected the downed plane were not aviation experts and could not say if it had any distinctive markings.
``There is no passenger seat and no pilot's seat,'' he said.
With the threat of United States retaliation looming, the Taliban last week declared all Afghan air space off limits, although defense experts say they have little capacity to enforce the ban.
Both the Taliban and Northern Alliance have a small number of helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft.
PHOTO CAPTION:
Mystery surrounded a downed aircraft in northern Afghanistan on September 22, 2001 as the ruling Taliban issued contradictory statements on whether it was an opposition helicopter or an unmanned U.S. spy plane. In the latest twist, the Taliban ambassador in Islamabad, Mullah Abdul Saleem Zaeef, told Reuters the craft was an unmanned plane that was apparently taking pictures when it was shot down in northern Afghanistan.. A Predator pilotless craft is shown flying above the USS Carl Vinson in 1995 off California. REUTERS/Jeffrey S. Viano/US Navy-Handout
- Sep 22 10:15 AM ET