On January 27, Afghan Taliban militants released information about the U.S. Air Force Bombardier E-11a battlefield communications aircraft that they shot down and confirmed the situation through corresponding video. Such a rare type of special aircraft wreckage fell into the hands of the enemy, and the US military will undoubtedly send special forces or air strikes to completely destroy the remaining wreckage that may be leaked. However, it is reported that the helicopter of the elite American "Rangers" special forces that went to the scene of the crash was also attacked by the Taliban, and the helicopter was said to have been shot down in the De Heck area of Ghazni Province, killing all 7 soldiers on board. Exactly how precisely the Taliban shot down the helicopter remains unknown, but sources say that unlike the previously destroyed U.S. E-11a, the helicopter was shot down by anti-aircraft guns and militants ambushed U.S. troops as they anticipated that U.S. troops would head to the scene of the downed plane.
The dark day in which the U.S. military suffered the shooting down of 2 warplanes in one day gave Western militarists speculation, who warned that such incidents could increase in the future if peace talks failed, as the rebels possessed modern anti-aircraft weapons. They say escalating tensions between Iran and the United States could help the Taliban acquire anti-aircraft weapons used to shoot down U.S. and other national planes over Afghanistan. The shooting down of U.S. helicopters and communications special aircraft is no accident, and Taliban militants have targeted Western aircraft over the past month, most recently in the Kajaki area of Helmand province.
Last year, U.S. forces carried out a record 7,423 airstrikes in Afghanistan, the highest since 2009, which led to an increasing number of civilian casualties. An average of 20 bombings per day is a staggering number, and in U.S. bombing operations, many civilians have been killed, and Americans often seem to have no idea who they are fighting. It is not yet known what new measures the Taliban must take to shoot down planes and helicopters, but several U.S.-made Stinger man-portable air defense missiles were found during a U.S. raid on the Taliban in 2018, most likely provided to them by the CIA in the 1980s to use against Soviet aircraft, but the weapons appear to have expired and can no longer function. As for the downing of Ranger Special Forces helicopters, the Taliban can shoot down slower, slower-moving, low-altitude helicopter targets with large-caliber machine guns or even anti-tank missiles or rocket launchers.
But shooting down the E-11a's weapons is not so simple, because the E-11a battlefield communications aircraft usually fly at high altitudes, and the place where the plane crashed was not near the airport. Like the American-made Stinger, the maximum firing height of ordinary man-portable air defense missiles is only 3500 meters, which provides conjecture for the Taliban to acquire new, longer-range anti-aircraft missiles, and everyone wants to know where the new weapons used by these Taliban come from.
On January 5, Allah leader Hassan Nasrallah announced how the Axis of Resistance would respond to the assassinations of Iranian General Suleimani and Iraqi Shiite Popular Defense Force leader Muhandis, perhaps Allah party and Iran could provide such weapons to the Taliban. However, Allah party and Iran are not the only possible sources of such missiles. Because some countries, including Russia, can also produce advanced anti-aircraft missiles, the pakistani and Tajikistan militaries have purchased a large number of missiles, but all of these countries are usually reluctant to supply anti-aircraft missiles to militants because they may also endanger their own civilian aircraft. Text/tg