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Pentagon says crashed 'drone' in Pakistan not from US

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-09-25 10:51

ISLAMABAD -- The Pakistani military said on Wednesday a pilotless aircraft that crashed in the northwestern region of South Waziristan had been recovered, but the Pentagon denied any US drone had been lost in the area.

The Pakistani military said on Wednesday a pilotless aircraft that crashed in the northwestern region of South Waziristan had been recovered, but the Pentagon denied any US drone had been lost in the area. [Agencies]

Separately, the US military said one of its aerial vehicles had gone down with engine problems in Paktika province in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, but US forces had immediately recovered the aircraft.

It was not immediately possible to reconcile the Pakistani and US statements, which suggested that more than one drone may have crashed. Pakistan has not yet displayed the wreckage of the aircraft it said it found.

A spate of recent missile attacks by unmanned US aircraft in Pakistan has strained ties between the allies.

Pakistan has said US missile attacks and one US ground assault are a violation of its sovereignty and the army has vowed to defend Pakistani territory.

US officials denied Pakistani reports suggesting the latest incident involved a US aircraft, saying no American drones, known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), had crashed or been lost in the area.

"We have no reports of any downed UAVs," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters on Wednesday.

Asked if that included unmanned aircraft operated by other agencies of the US government, Whitman stressed he had no reports of any missing drones.

Shortly later, however, a US military spokesman in Afghanistan said a drone had crashed there.

President Asif Ali Zardari met US President George W. Bush in New York on Tuesday and spoke strongly about protecting Pakistani sovereignty, Bush said.

The Pakistani military confirmed that a pilotless aircraft had come down but did not identify it as American. Other countries with forces in Afghanistan have not been known to operate drones over Pakistani territory.

"A surveillance unmanned aerial vehicle while flying over Pak-Afghan border yesterday night crash landed, on this side of the border ... apparently due to malfunctioning," the army said in a statement.

"The wreckage ... has been recovered."

One Pakistani security officer, who asked not to be identified, said it was a US aircraft.

"It's American. It's theirs, no one else flies drones there," the officer said.