At least 11 dead, including 6 U.S. troops, in Afghanistan plane crash

A C-130J transport plane takes off in Jordan
(Image credit: CC by: U.S. Air Force)

Shortly after midnight in Afghanistan on Friday, a U.S. Air Force C-130J transport plane crashed soon after taking off from Jalalabad Airfield, killing all six U.S. service members and five civilian contractors on board, the U.S. military said. The 455th Air Expeditionary Wing at Bagram Airfield called the crash "an accident" in a statement, without elaborating, but a U.S. official told The Associated Press that there were no signs of hostile fire. The cause of the crash is still under investigation, and a military spokesman wouldn't rule out the possibility that more dead or wounded will be found at the crash site. There are about 1,000 U.S.-led coalition troops in eastern Afghanistan and another 8,000 elsewhere in the country.

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Peter Weber

Peter Weber is a senior editor at TheWeek.com, and has handled the editorial night shift since the website launched in 2008. A graduate of Northwestern University, Peter has worked at Facts on File and The New York Times Magazine. He speaks Spanish and Italian and plays bass and rhythm cello in an Austin rock band. Follow him on Twitter.