Sunday, August 21, 2011 – Taliban militants in Afghanistan have claimed that an unmanned US reconnaissance drone has been shot down by their gunmen in eastern city of Jalalabad.
Zabiullah Mujahid, Taliban spokesman said, their militants gunned the aircraft late Saturday.
Meanwhile, local residents said, they saw the drone catching fire mid-air and crashing into a civilian house.
This comes as earlier this week, another US drone crashed due to technical problems in eastern Ghazni Province, NATO said in a statement.
The Taliban spokesman had claimed that the militants shot down the unmanned plane.
The Taliban militants in Afghanistan also claim, they have shot down several aircraft and NATO choppers in different parts of Afghanistan over the past few months.
The militants have proven resilient despite the presence of around 150,000 US-led forces in Afghanistan.
Taliban have steadily stepped up their attacks on the US-led forces using all the possible ways including use Improvised Explosive Device attacks, inflicting heavy casualties and damage on NATO-led coalition forces and Afghan security forces including civilians.
Recently, Taliban militants shot down a Chinook CH-47 Helicopter belonging to NATO-led coalition forces which killed at least 38 on board including 7 Afghan commandos.
