NATO aircraft missing in Afghanistan

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Sept 2 (Reuters) A NATO aircraft has gone missing in Afghanistan but there was no indication it had been shot down, a NATO spokesman said today.

''An aircraft supporting the ISAF mission is missing, there are no reports at this time of any enemy action,'' the spokesman, Major Scott Lundy, said referring to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.

Lundy said he had no further information about the aircraft, or how many people were on board.

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 SSC RN1942