Afghan navy aircraft crashes in Uzbekistan; trigger disputed

An Afghan navy aircraft crashed in Uzbekistan over the weekend, and Uzbek authorities on Monday issued conflicting reviews on the trigger. The wreckage got here as dozens of Afghan navy plane carrying a whole bunch of servicemen reportedly reached Uzbekistan, among the many hundreds fleeing the nation after the Taliban recaptured the Afghan capital of Kabul.
The aircraft crash in southeastern Uzbekistan, within the Surkhandarya area on the border with Afghanistan, was first reported by native media. Uzbekistan’s Defense Ministry initially stated it was learning movies and reviews of the crash, then confirmed that the aircraft did crash, with out elaborating.
Later on Monday, Russia’s state information company RIA Novosti reported that it was instructed by the Uzbek Defense Ministry that Uzbekistan’s air protection system had downed the aircraft and “averted an attempt by an Afghan military plane to illegally cross Uzbekistan’s air border.” Two pilots, the company stated, had been hospitalised in severe situation.

Within hours, the Prosecutor General’s workplace in Uzbekistan issued a press release saying that an Afghan navy aircraft had collided with an Uzbek aircraft that was scrambled to escort it to the airport at Termez, a metropolis in Surkhandarya.
The workplace later retracted that assertion, which additionally alleged that 22 warplanes and 24 navy helicopters from Afghanistan carrying 585 servicemen “illegally crossed” into Uzbek airspace over the weekend and had been pressured by Uzbek authorities to land at Termez.
The Prosecutor General’s workplace later apologised for a “hasty” assertion on the messaging app Telegram and stated it was not based mostly “verified data from the relevant authorities.”
The Associated Press couldn’t instantly reconcile all of the conflicting reviews or independently confirm them.
Reports of the aircraft crash in Uzbekistan appeared on Monday as hundreds of Afghans packed into the Kabul airport, speeding the tarmac and pushing onto planes in determined makes an attempt to flee the nation a day after the Taliban overthrew the nation’s Western-backed authorities. U.S. troops fired warning photographs as they struggled to handle the chaotic evacuation.
Caroline Tabler, a communications director for Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, stated the GOP lawmaker’s workplace was working urgently to assist Afghan pilots fleeing from the Taliban to Uzbekistan. She appeared to substantiate that a minimum of some Afghan navy personnel had reached Uzbekistan.
“We’re working with an intermediary who’s been in touch with the pilots,” she instructed the AP. “We have not heard from them since last night (Washington) time. We know Uzbekistan has taken their cellphones. Our primary concern is making sure Uzbekistan does not turn them over to the Taliban. We are frantically reaching out to the State Department on this case and trying to get them asylum and literally can’t get a response.”
A aircraft carrying greater than 100 Afghan servicemen landed in Tajikistan on Monday, the Tajik Foreign Ministry stated. Officials instructed Russia’s state information company Tass that Tajikistan obtained an SOS sign and allowed a aircraft certain from Afghanistan to land at an airport within the Khatlon province, which borders each Afghanistan and Uzbekistan’s Surkhandarya area.

On Sunday, Uzbekistan’s Foreign Ministry reported that 84 Afghan servicemen crossed the border into Uzbekistan, asking for help. The group was detained by border guards and included three wounded troopers who wanted medical assist.
The males had been provided meals and non permanent lodging in Uzbekistan, and the ministry stated it was in contact with Afghan officers relating to the return of the Afghan troopers.