US fighter jet crashes in Afghanistan

A US F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet crashed in eastern Afghanistan today, killing both crew members on board.

The US Air Force said in a statement that the crash, which took place at 3:15am local time, was not due to hostile action.

"There is an active investigation going on at the site at this time," Air Force spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Reid Christopherson said by telephone from Qatar, the main base of US air operations in the Middle East and Central Asia.

Mohammad Qasim Nazari, chief of the Nawur district of Ghazni province in eastern Afghanistan, said the crash had taken place in a remote desert area of the district.

He said US forces had sealed off the area.

Christopherson declined to discuss the status of the two crew members, but a military source in Kabul confirmed they had been killed. The source asked not to be identified pending the Air Force's official announcement of the deaths.

The Strike Eagle is a variant of the F-15 supersonic jet designed to strike ground targets and provide close air support for infantry.