We’re learning more about the American military Bombardier E-11A surveillance aircraft that crashed in Ghazni, Afghanistan:
It's still not clear what led to the plane crash in Afghanistan and how many casualties there are. The government initially said the plane belonged to national carrier Ariana – but the airline swiftly denied that. The US military has since confirmed one of its planes crashed pic.twitter.com/ZVTO5IVEmQ
— BBC Monitoring (@BBCMonitoring) January 28, 2020
According to CBS News, U.S. forces finally reached the crash site and recovered the bodies of two crewman:
MILITARY PLANE CRASH: We’re learning new details of a U.S. operation overnight to the site of a deadly American plane crash in Afghanistan.
David Martin reports from the Pentagon: pic.twitter.com/WaYWSnfh67
— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) January 28, 2020
But Iranian state media, which cannot be trusted, is claiming that senior CIA official Michael D’Andrea was on the jet:
https://twitter.com/aliarouzi/status/1222121301747425282
Iran is basing this on “Russian sources”:
If you follow Iranian media and Farsi media you'll find that Michael D'Andrea's name ( مايكل دي آندرا) was highlighted after the Soleimani killing in Mehr and other news; now the reports today about the Afghan plane crash allege (via "Russian sources") that he was on the plane; pic.twitter.com/KXhOXqpQtK
— Seth Frantzman (@sfrantzman) January 28, 2020
They’re also claiming that the Taliban brought down the surveillance aircraft:
Tracking Iranian media claims regarding the plane crash in Afghanistan and the assertions high level CIA officers killed; of course this would feed their claim of retaliation for Soleimani https://t.co/h4mYRs6AHs
— Seth Frantzman (@sfrantzman) January 28, 2020
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The Russian sources are known to be BS as well:
Some Iranian news agencies, incl judiciary affiliated Mizan, claim CIA's Michael D’Andrea has been killed in U.S. plane crash in Afghanistan. Their main source appears to be a fringe pro-Kremlin website that has reportedly promoted fake news and conspiracy theories in the past. https://t.co/eBYJrgbJKA
— Golnaz Esfandiari (@GEsfandiari) January 28, 2020
State TV in Iran used the photo of Hollywood actor Fredric Lehne who played a character based on D’Andrea in the movie “Zero Dark Thirty”:
State TV asserts that senior CIA officer Michael D’Andrea – whom it says had a key role in killing Iranian general Qasem Soleimani – was killed in the crash. The image it’s showing is of actor Fredric Lehne who plays a character based on D’Andrea in the movie Zero Dark Thirty pic.twitter.com/u8Ius9TwWq
— BBC Monitoring (@BBCMonitoring) January 28, 2020
State TV also lied about an AP report saying there were “nearly 100 corpses” at the crash site:
@AP has also told us that it did not report that nearly 100 corpses had been found at the crash site
— BBC Monitoring (@BBCMonitoring) January 28, 2020
According to the military, the plane was not brought down by enemy fire:
After hours of confusion during which officials had initially identified the plane as a passenger airliner, the United States military said there was no indication that enemy fire had caused the aircraft to crash in Taliban territory https://t.co/SKokfayxli
— The New York Times (@nytimes) January 28, 2020
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