The US Navy’s elite SEAL Team 6 reportedly recovered two bodies from the site where a US Air Force E-11A aircraft crashed in the Ghazni province of Afghanistan on Monday.
The bodies and a flight recorder were recovered during the mission, which was first noted by the Connecting Vets radio station and then reported by Newsweek on Tuesday.
The SEALs destroyed the plane’s sensitive military equipment to prevent it from being captured, according to Newsweek. A US defense official told the publication that US officials had not ruled out an airstrike if they deem that the aircraft’s remains still pose a risk.
The US has previously ordered airstrikes to keep material out of the hands of adversaries. Following President Donald Trump’s decision last fall to pull troops out of Syria, the US Air Force sent F-15 jets to strike its own storage bunker to prevent it from falling into enemy hands.
After the crash on Monday, the Taliban ambushed Afghan security forces in a clash that prevented the recovery of the bodies.
The plane was part of the 430th Expeditionary Electronic Combat Squadron from the Kandahar air base in Afghanistan, Newsweek said. It issued a mayday call before the plane crashed at about 1 p.m. local time, a US defense official told the publication.
Four E-11s — business jets refitted with communications equipment that can link ground troops together — operate out of the Kandahar base.
Taliban forces initially claimed responsibility and said dozens of people were killed in the crash. US military officials on Monday, however, said that “there are no indications the crash was caused by enemy fire.”
