US-backed Afghan government forces and Taliban fighters clashed as the troops tried to gain access to the wreckage of a US military plane.
The security forces were reportedly ambushed by the Taliban, which controls the territory where the jet crashed in central Ghazni province, a police chief claims.
Meanwhile, Iranian state TV claimed a top CIA chief who orchestrated the assassination of an Iranian general was killed in the crash, without providing any evidence.
The US has not yet commented on claims that Michael D’Andrea, who was involved in the hunt for Osama bin Laden and is nicknamed the "Dark Prince", was on board the jet and among those killed.
D'Andrea, the head of CIA operations against Iran, Afghanistan and Iraq, is said to have planned America's killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad earlier this month.
In a report on Tuesday, Iranian state media outlet Mizan, the mouthpiece for Tehran's Judiciary, claimed D'Andrea was among the dead.
The Veterans Today website, which has been accused of spreading Russian propaganda and reportedly had ties to Iran’s state-backed PressTV in the past, also claimed D'Andrea was killed, citing unnamed Russian intelligence sources.
