Taliban says it shot down freighter

THE Taliban has claimed it was to blame for shooting down the Silk Way freighter that crashed in the mountainous Siagerd region of Afghanistan last Wednesday (6 July) killing all nine people on board.

However, the local governor of Siegerd, Abdulhalim Mujaddidi, denies the Islamist militia group was responsible.

The Ilyushin-76 was flying from Baku (Azerbaijan) to Bagram (Afghanistan) with 18 metric tonnes of cargo. Afghanistan’s air traffic control lost contact with the aircraft as it was preparing to land in the early hours of the morning. An air traffic controller in Kabul reported seeing a flash in the sky at a height of 4km. The freighter was later found to have crashed into a mountain. Azerbaijan’s Civil Aviation Administration said the crew had reported no problems before communication was lost.