Officials at Pentagon Say Iraq Found Wreckage of Lost Plane

WASHINGTON — Pentagon officials have verified Iraq’s claim that it found the charred wreckage of a U.S. Air Force unmanned reconnaissance plane that was lost over southern Iraq on Monday.

Two U.S. defense officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Tuesday that although it appeared certain that the wreckage is from the lost RQ-1B Predator, it remained unclear whether the Predator was shot down by Iraqi air defenses--as Iraq claims--or crashed as a result of a technical malfunction.

The wreckage was found near the city of Basra, about 30 miles north of the Kuwaiti border. Pentagon officials said a Predator was operating in that area at the time its controllers lost contact Monday.

Iraq said its air defenses shot down the Predator, and Pentagon officials did not dispute that. But they said they could not rule out the possibility that the Predator went down on its own.

Images of the wreckage were broadcast on Iraqi television, and government newspapers trumpeted Iraq’s first downing of a U.S. aircraft since U.S. and other allied planes began patrolling “no-fly” zones over the country in 1991.

“Iraqi skies are a death zone for the enemy,” the Al Jumhuriyah newspaper said.

Army Col. Rick Thomas, spokesman for the U.S. Central Command, which is responsible for U.S. military operations in the Persian Gulf, said no sensitive technology was compromised by the loss.