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F-16 shot down Iranian drone in February

The Iranian unmanned aircraft downed by coalition forces last month in Iraqi airspace was shot down by an American F-16, according to an Air Force officer familiar with the operation who asked to remain anonymous.

Coalition Air Forces tracked the Iranian drone for 70 minutes after it entered Iraqi airspace Feb. 25 before shooting it down 60 miles northeast of Baghdad, said 1st Lt. John A. Brimley, a spokesman at Multi-National Forces-Iraq, in a statement.

Maj. Gen. Abdul Aziz Mohammed Jassim, head of military operations at the Iraqi Defense Ministry, told Reuters the Iranians likely made a “mistake” flying the drone six miles inside Iraq, but a U.S. statement said the aircraft’s presence over Iraqi airspace “was not an accident.”

Two pilots in the area confirmed it didn’t belong to coalition forces, Brimley said. The drone was an Ababil-3 reconnaissance unmanned aircraft, he said.

It was shot down only after it was determined there was no risk of collateral damage, Brimley said.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.