An Afghan-owned civilian helicopter was forced to make an emergency landing in a militant-controlled area of Afghanistan on Sunday due to bad weather about 18.5 miles from the Pakistani border.

The helicopter had on board eight turkish nationals and at least one Russian national and one Afghan. It was carrying mechanical supplies and technical staff from a projectand was underway from Khost province to Kabul when it made its hard landing in the Azra district of the eastern Logar province. The weather was reported as violent rainstorms Sunday afternoon at the time of the forced landing.

In an email supplied to news agencies, Taliban militants announced that they have the passengers of the helicopter under their control. They have stated that after destroyed the helicopter, they abducted the occupants. They are claiming that the passengers are in fact NATO soldiers posing as civilians. ISAF denies this.

The region where the helicopter went down is largely controlled by Taliban and is one of the prime locations that militants cross the border from northwestern Pakistan.

The Turkish foreign ministry confirms that eight Turks were among those in the helicopter. It was the Turks who chartered the helicopter from Khoransan Cargo Airlines. That airlines confirmed that a helicopter was missing along with crew and passengers.

Turkey is one of only two muslim-majority members of NATO that has troops in Afghanistan. That country has 1,093 troops there that carry out patrols and training. Turkey is not involved in combat operations.