5 US service members among 12 dead in Afghan plane crash

A U.S. defense official says 12 people, including five U.S. service members, are dead after the crash of a military C-130 transport plane in Afghanistan.

The official says the plane crashed at Jalalabad Airport in eastern Afghanistan at about midnight local time.

There are about 1,000 coalition forces in eastern Afghanistan, including U.S. and Polish forces as well as about 40,000 Afghan troops, according to NATO.

The U.S. official was not authorized to discuss the incident publicly, so spoke on condition of anonymity.

The U.S. has about 9,800 troops in Afghanistan, although the numbers are expected to go down a bit by the end of the year.