Iranian state media cited a nonexistent Associated Press report to claim 'nearly 100 corpses' were found after a US military plane crash in Afghanistan

• The state-run IRINN TV network aired a report on Tuesday claiming that about 100 bodies had been found at the site of a US military plane crash in Afghanistan on Monday.
• IRINN cited an Associated Press (AP) report that said "nearly 100 corpses" were found at the site, according to BBC Monitoring.
• The AP has since said that such report did not exist, BBC Monitoring said.
• The aircraft, a US Air Force Bombardier E-11A, is widely believed to have been carrying no more than six people at the time of the crash.
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Iranian state TV cited a report by the Associated Press (AP) claiming that 100 bodies were found at the site of a US military plane crash in Afghanistan, but the news agency says this report doesn't exist.

The Islamic Republic of Iran News Network (IRINN), which is part of the state-run Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, reported Tuesday, according to BBC Monitoring: "US authorities have not yet released official casualty figures but the Associated Press, quoting local officials in Ghazni Province in Afghanistan, has announced that nearly 100 corpses have been found at the crash site."

The AP has published reports on the disaster, but none of them have contained the 100-bodies figure. The news agency also told BBC Monitoring that it did not report this, the monitoring site tweeted Tuesday.

The AP has not yet responded to Business Insider's request for comment.

Neither officials in the US nor in Ghazni, the Taliban-held province where the crash took place, have given a death toll so far.

The plane, a US Air Force Bombardier E-11A, is widely believed to have been carrying no more than six people at the time of the crash. New York Times correspondent Mujib Mashal reported that the most widely-cited figure is two.

The Taliban claimed it shot down the plane, and said it contained high-ranking CIA officers. US defense officials warned on Monday that the "first report's always wrong."

Iran's state-run Channel One network also peddled a theory that a senior CIA official named Michael D'Andrea had been on the plane.

In reports broadcast by the channel, a photo of actor Fredric Lehne - who played a character inspired by D'Andrea in the 2012 movie "Zero Dark Thirty" - was shown instead of D'Andrea himself.

Channel One also claimed that D'Andrea - who leads the CIA's activities on Iran - played a key role in the US assassination of Iranian military general Qassem Soleimani, according to BBC Monitoring.

It's not clear if this is true, and the CIA declined to comment when contacted by Business Insider.

• Read more:
• A US Air Force battlefield-communications plane crashed in Taliban-held territory in Afghanistan
• Iranian state TV used a photo of an actor from 'Zero Dark Thirty' to spread a wild theory that a senior CIA official was killed in a plane crash in Afghanistan
• The US dropped the most bombs on Afghanistan in nearly a decade as it talks peace with the Taliban

We have not seen any @ap report on the plane crash in Afghanistan saying 100 corpses were found at the crash site.

- BBC Monitoring (@BBCMonitoring) January 28, 2020