On January 4, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) operated by the U.S.-led coalition crashed in Iraq’s western region.
An Iraqi security source told the al-Sumaria News TV that the UAV crashed while conducting a surveillance mission over western Anbar as a result of what he called “a technical failure.”
“An American drone crashed while flying on a surveillance mission east of the al-Baghdadi district in the area of Hit, west of Anbar,” the Iraqi news channel quoted the source as saying.
Iraqi sources released several photos showing the wreckage of the UAV, which was identified by experts as a Boeing Insitu ScanEagle 2.
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Some sources claimed that the UAV was in fact downed by the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), which had vowed to retaliate to recent U.S. strikes on their personnel. However, these claims have not been confirmed, yet.
This type of UAVs, which entered service with the U.S. military in 2014, has a cruising speed of 148 km/h, a maximum operating altitude of 5,950m and an endurance of more than 16 hours.
