US drone shot down over Somalia: Report

Mon Oct 19, 2009

Al-Shabaab militants say they have shot down an American unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flying over Somalia's southern port of Kismayu.

The group's spokesman said on Monday that the American drone was conducting "spy operations" and was shot down. "We think the plane fell into the sea", said Sheikh Hassan Yacqub, and added they were searching for the wreckage.

Kismayu residents routinely report suspected US drones flying over the port. The drones are believed to be launched from warships in the Indian Ocean.

However, a spokesman for the US Navy's Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, Lieutenant Nathan Christensen, rejected the al-Shabaab report saying all its unmanned aerial vehicles had been safely recovered but could not give further details, Reuters reported.

Al-Shabaab controls much of the southern and central parts of Somalia, where it is waging an insurgency against the fragile UN-backed government.

Domestic clashes in Somalia have killed 19,000 civilians since the start of 2007, and have made some 1.5 million homeless.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/109095.html.