Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid announced that a US forces aircraft crashed in eastern Afghanistan hours after the plane went down in an area controlled largely by the group.

He claimed the crash killed "lots" of US service members. However, the group often exaggerates casualty figures.

"An aircraft of American occupiers has crashed in Ghazni province," Mujahid said in a statement in the Pashto language, adding that all crew members on board were killed.

An American military aircraft crashed in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, the U.S. military said, adding that there were no indications so far it’d been brought down by the enemy fire.

The spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Col. Sonny Leggett, said that the military plane, a Bombardier E-11A, crashed in the Ghazni province and an investigation of its causes was ongoing.

The Bombardier E-11A is a U.S. Air Force electronic surveillance plane. Video from the crash site circulating on social media appeared to show its charred ruins.