ISIS claims to have shot down US drone
08.02.2016 20:00
The terror group – also known as Daesh – has boasted it downed a unmanned spy plane in al-Baghdadi, about 140 miles west of Baghdad, Iraq.
It has paraded what it claims is the aircraft on television.
The footage is impossible to verify, but the wreckage appears to be an AeroVironment RQ-20 Puma.
The Puma is a small, battery powered, hand-launched unmanned aircraft.
Its primary mission is surveillance and intelligence gathering using an electro-optical and infrared camera.
US special forces use the drone – which has a wingspan of nine feet – to scope out targets before launching an attack.
Unlike the better known Predator and Reaper drones, the Puma doesn't carry out air strikes.
Islamic State frequently claims to have shot down drones, such as the below video – which appears to be an AAI RQ-7 Shadow UAV.
It claims to have taken out the surveillance plane near al-Karmah, north of Fallujah, in Iraq, at the end of last month.
The drone downing coincided with an ISIS attack just north of al-Baghdadi.
The Aamaq News Agency – a Daesh mouthpiece – claimed 30 Iraqi soldiers were killed and dozens wounded during a firefight, in which the terrorists detonated explosive suicide belts.
US special forces may have been using the drone as its eyes from the sky during the fight.
(dailystar.co.uk)
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