Iraqi state radio reported an allied reconnaissance drone on a mission over northern Iraq had been shot down at 09.30 on the 26th, but the United States dismissed the report.
US officials did admit that a Predator unmanned aerial vehicle returning from a surveillance mission over southern Iraq crashed as it was preparing to land at an airfield in Kuwait on the 26th. The wreckage has been completely recovered and the US military said the cause of the crash was being investigated, but it was not the result of enemy fire.
In 2001, Iraq said it shot down two US drones over southern Iraq (the second on 27 August and while the United States acknowledged that the drones went down in Iraq, no one was not sure of the reason. - Adam Geibel
