ANKARA, Feb 4 (AFP) - Turkey confirmed Friday that an Afghan passenger jet which went missing near Kabul in a snow storm had crashed, citing information given out by the Afghan transport ministry.
The prime minister`s press office said in a statement that the Afghan transport ministry had announced the Boeing 737 travelling from the western city of Herat to the capital had went down.
The plane "disappeared after it was unable to land in Kabul due to heavy snow and asked permission to divert to Peshawar. Afterwards, the Afghan transport ministry officially announced that the plane had crashed," said the statement.
"There is no definite information yet on the location of the crash, but it is said to be 30 miles (48 kilometres) southeast of Kabul," it added.
Earlier Friday, a Western security source told AFP in Kabul that the wreckage of the plane had been found 35 kilometres (22 miles) east of Kabul, while another source close to the search mission said the plane had been located at a distance of 57 kilometres from the capital.
The Turkish foreign ministry also confirmed that the private Kam Air plane, which disappeared from radar screens near Kabul late Thursday, had crashed.
"We learned with great regret that a passenger plane, operated by the private airlines Kam Air, crashed while on a flight from Herat to Kabul," the ministry said in a written statement.
A senior Turkish diplomat said they had received news of the crash from Afghan officials. "The crash was announced by the Afghan transport ministry," he said without giving any other details.
Turkey announced Friday that nine Turkish citizens working for Turkish companies in Afghanistan were among the 96 passengers aboard the ill-fated aircraft, which had a crew of eight people.
The Turkish embassy in Kabul were in constant contact with Afghan officials to find their fate, the foreign ministry said.
It was not yet clear whether there were any survivors.
02/04/2005 17:58 GMT - AFP