NATO aircraft crashes in Afghanistan

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Sep 2 (Reuters) A NATO aircraft has crashed in Afghanistan, apparently after developing a technical problem, the NATO force said today.

The aircraft was supporting the NATO mission when it went down in the southern province of Kandahar.

''We have information that an aircraft supporting the ISAF mission crashed having declared a technical problem,'' the force said in a statement, referring to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.

''Enemy action has been discounted at this stage,'' it said.

A force spokesman, Major Scott Lundy, said he had no information about the aircraft, or how many people were on board.

''It went off the radar and crashed,'' Lundy said.

Lundy said he had heard that the Taliban were claiming to have shot the aircraft down but he rejected that.

''Their claims are absolutely false,'' he said.

The Taliban, fighting to oust foreign forces, invariably claim to have shot down aircraft that foreign forces and the government say came down accidentally.

The last time the insurgents were known to have brought an aircraft down was last year when they hit a US military helicopter with a rocket-propelled grenade during a battle in the eastern province of Kunar.

REUTERS AB KP2044