A civilian cargo transport plane crashed into mountains near the Afghan capital Kabul this evening, killing all seven people on board, a local civil aviation official said.
Afghan and international forces sent a search and rescue mission and helicopters out to the area of the crash, around 25-30km east of Kabul, after the aircraft went down en route from nearby Bagram military air base.
"It was a cargo plane coming from Bagram to Kabul when it hit the peak," said Nangyalai Qalatwal, spokesman for the Ministry of Civil Aviation.
He said all seven people on board had died and all were foreigners, but he had no details of their nationalities.
The Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said early reports indicated the plane was an L-100 Hercules aircraft, the civilian equivalent of a military C-130. The plane was not an ISAF aircraft, a spokesman for the force said.
A police official had earlier reported a passenger plane had crashed near the Afghan capital.
Kabul's international airport is bustling with civilian and military air traffic involved in U.S., NATO and United Nations operations in the country's conflict and aid efforts, as well as commercial passenger and cargo flights.
In May, a plane from Afghanistan's Pamir Airways crashed into a remote Hindu Kush mountain region near Kabul, killing 43 passengers and crew. Before that the last major air crash was in 2005 when a Boeing 737 operated by Afghan carrier Kam Air crashed in a snow storm, killing 104 passengers and crew.
Reuters