US Says It Shot Down Iranian Drone Over Iraq

  16 March 2009

The U.S. military has confirmed that it shot down an unmanned Iranian aircraft over Iraq last month.

A military spokesman Monday said U.S. forces tracked the drone in Iraqi airspace for one hour and ten minutes before shooting it down, about 100 kilometers north of Baghdad.

The spokesman added that "this was not an accident on the part of the Iranians."

The incident was first reported by Wired.com earlier this month but, at the time, the U.S. military declined comment.

Washington has previously accused Iran of meddling in the affairs of neighboring Iraq, where the U.S. has had troops since it invaded the country in 2003.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP and AP

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