PESHAWAR: Taliban in Afghanistan on Thursday claimed to have shot down a chopper of a United States private security company, Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR), in the restive province of Khost.
"I am taking the responsibility of shooting down this copter in which all people on board have been killed," remarked Taliban`s senior commander Sirajuddin Haqqani, who called this correspondent from an undisclosed location by telephone.
Haqqani, whose fighters operate in Afghanistan`s Khost, Paktia and even in the capital Kabul, claimed that 15 to 20 US soldiers were on board when his men targeted the chopper at Zambar area near Sabaro town in Khost.
However, the Taliban commander claimed dozens of Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers and US reached the spot and cordoned off the area.Meanwhile, two US fighters on Thursday violated Pakistan`s airspace in the North Waziristan tribal agency.
Official as well as tribal sources told media that two US fighters entered North Waziristan`s Saidgai and Ghulam Khan at 9:25 am and flew over the border town till 9:35 am."Both the planes flew over about 400 meters deep inside the Pakistani airspace but targeted some suspected places inside Afghanistan," said a military official from the border area, on condition that he would not be named.
However, military spokesman Maj-Gen Athar Abbas, when reached by telephone, said he was not aware of any such violation. "No I didn`t receive any such report from my sources," the military spokesman explained.
AFP adds: A suicide attack targeting the US-led troops killed three Afghans here on Thursday, as officials reported that Nato air strikes on a militant fort in the remote southwest of Afghanistan left 30 Taliban dead.
The Taliban claimed the responsibility for the car bombing, which also damaged vehicles carrying soldiers from the US-led military coalition.
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