Drone crashes in Somalia's Puntland region

Source : Tehran Times

A surveillance drone has crashed in the semi- autonomous Puntland region of Somalia, according to Puntland Ports and Anti-piracy Minister Saeed Mohamed Rage.

The drone crashed on Saturday in Qaw, a village located 20 kilometers (12 miles) west of the port city of Bossasso, the minister of the Puntland State of Somalia said.

The U.S. military flies surveillance drones from the Seychelles to monitor piracy off the coast of East Africa.

But Rage said it is not clear whose drone crashed.

Washington has increasingly turned to unmanned aircraft to carry out covert strikes in several countries, such as Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Yemen.

In Somalia, the US is using a new kind of drone, called a kamikaze drone. It functions both as a missile and an intelligence-gathering reconnaissance aircraft.

The U.S. military also uses drones to target al-Shabab fighters in south and central Somalia.

On Tuesday, al-Shabab fighters posted pictures on Twitter of what they said was a surveillance drone that had crashed in Somalia.

Somalia’s Lower Shabelle region governor Abdikadir Mohamed Nur said that al-Shabab militants had shot at the aircraft over the town of Bulamareer for several hours before it crashed.

“Finally they hit it and the drone crashed,” Nur told Reuters.

The al-Shabab confirmed that a drone had crashed but did not say if they had downed it.

“A U.S. drone has just crashed near one of the towns under the administration of the Mujahideen in the Lower Shabelle region,” al-Shabab said on a social media account.

Although the United States does not report its activities in Somalia, drones have been used in recent years in Somalia.

Last year, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Pentagon was seeking to send drones to Kenya as part of a $40 million-plus military aid package to help four African countries fighting militants.

Bulamareer residents said al-Shabab had kept them away from the crash site.

“Al-Shabab fighters surrounded the scene. We are not allowed to go near it,” resident Aden Farah told Reuter