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Unmanned Plane Crash in Iran Confirmed
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UAV
technology allows military commanders to survey battles from
afar and attack targets by remote control
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TEHRAN
, June 13 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) –
Iran
’s government spokesman Abdollah Ramezanzadeh confirmed press
reports of the recent crash of an unmanned plane in the northwest of
the country, but said its origin was not clear, a press report said
Thursday, June 13.
Ramezanzadeh,
cited by Thursday’s government-run
Iran
paper, “confirmed reports that an unmanned aircraft had crashed in
Iran
's western
province
of
Kordestan
, but said the wreckage was too dispersed to establish its
ownership.”
He
said that “the wreckage of an object, apparently an unmanned plane,
had been found in Kordestan, and stressed that military and security
experts had launched a probe into the case.”
Ramezanzadeh
gave no further details on the plane, nor on the exact date of the
crash, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.
On
Wednesday, June 12, the same paper cited an unnamed parliamentary
source as saying that an unmanned
U.S.
plane had crashed in Kordestan province in late May.
“An
unmanned American plane has crashed in
Iran
’s Kordestan province,” the source said, adding that the aircraft
was “fitted with a simultaneous transmission camera.”
An
official in
Iran
’s National Aviation Organization, asking not to be named, told AFP
that an “unmanned airplane” had crashed in Iranian territory but
declined to give details.
The
reformist Iranian daily newspaper, Noruz, in another unconfirmed
report, has also said that an unmanned “foreign airplane crashed in
Iran
’s Kordestan (province) four days ago.”
It
said the plane crashed into a mountain, adding that “political,
security and military officials have not commented on the incident
yet.”
U.S.
warplanes patrolling the skies of neighboring northern
Iraq
to enforce a no-fly zone regularly come under fire from Iraqi air
defenses.
Baghdad
last month claimed to have shot down an unmanned spy plane, or drone,
used in the enforcement mission.
U.S.
Senate’s Governmental Affairs Committee, Vann Van Diepen Tuesday,
June 11, 2002, said the technology that allows military commanders to
survey battles from afar and attack targets by remote control could be
used by those he called “terrorists” to deliver a devastating
chemical or biological attack.
Washington
has imposed export controls on such technology and has established an
assistance program to help other countries develop export controls of
their own, and has added the threat of sanctions against those who
will not cooperate, Van Diepen said.
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