Pakistan confirms US suspected drone crashes in tribal region
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
Rawalpindi, Sept 24, IRNA
Pakistan-Army
Pakistan army Wednesday confirmed the downing of an American spy plane in the country's tribal region.
Locals say that tribesmen fired and shot it down in South Waziristan tribal region after it crossed into Pakistani tribal region Tuesday night.
An army spokesman said that the plane crashed 'apparently due to malfunctioning'.
A statement from the army's Inter-Services Public Relations said that a surveillance Unmanned Aerial Vehicle while flying over Pak- Afghan Border yesterday night crashed, landed, on this side of the border at Jalal Village, closed to Angoor Adda in South Waziristan Agency crashed.
"The wreckage of UAV has been recovered from the site by the Security Forces personnel and the matter is under detailed investigation," it said.
Tribesmen say that American spy planes regularly fly over Waziristan to hit suspected militants.
It is the first time that a U.S spy plane has been shot down by the tribesmen in Waziristan tribal region, bordering Afghanistan.
US forces intruded into Pakistan on September 3 and had killed upto 20 people, according to the governor of Northwest Frontier Province.
The incident had heightened tension between the two countries and despite Pakistan protest the US drones continued missile strikes.
Shooting of the US spy plane coincided with the first face-to-face meeting of Pakistan's news President Asif Zardari and President Bush in New York.
The two leaders met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday but Bush did not refer to the attacks by US drones in Pakistani areas.
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