Taliban Claims Credit for Downing of US Drone

Taliban militants in Pakistan’s tribal area of North Waziristan have taken credit for the downing of a U.S. drone aircraft after it crashed near the Afghan border on Saturday.

“The drone today in Machikhel was flying at low altitude and our fighters fired at and shot it down,” a local commander of the Taliban said. “We have trained people for such type of job.”

After Taliban militants collected the wreckage of the unmanned aerial vehicle, Pakistani security officials arrived to check the downed drone. The Taliban reportedly kept the wreckage because the Pakistani officials left, hearing more drones over head and wanting to avoid getting attacked.

“We don’t know what caused it to go down. We are investigating,” said a Pakistani official. Drones have crashed on their own before, but there is no way to verify whether or not the militants actually shot it down. The U.S. government declined to comment.