Two US military drones crash into one another over Syria

The U.S. military lost two drones over the Idlib Governorate this week after they reportedly crashed into one another on Tuesday.

Citing a defense official, the Military Times reported that the U.S. lost the two drones when they crashed into one another over northwestern Syria.

In short, tonight, the #Turkish Soldiers or supported militants from MANPADS shot down an #American (strike) UAV MQ-9.#Americans will not forgive, so we are waiting for the strikes of the Coalition Air Force on Idlib.#Syria pic.twitter.com/mkahU9UmIz

— Sukhoi Su-57 Felon 🇷🇺🇮🇳 (@I30mki) August 18, 2020

“Images of burning aircraft crashing to the ground were posted on Twitter Tuesday. There was speculation that the aircraft were MQ-9 Reapers — a remotely piloted aircraft used predominately as an armed hunter-killer drone, but also capable of surveillance and intelligence collection — and were shot down,” Military Times reported.

They added that the defense official could not confirm the types of drones that crashed into one another at the time of the incident.

Opposition activists previously reported that the drones were shot down over Idlib, while others mistook the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) as belonging to the Russian military, rather than the U.S.

Tuesday’s incident marked the first time during the Syrian conflict that any U.S. drones have crashed into one another.