AP – An official in the semiautonomous Puntland region of Somalia says a surveillance drone has crashed.

Ports and Anti-piracy Minister Saeed Mohamed Rage said Saturday the drone  crashed in Quaw village 20 kilometers (12miles) west of the port city of Bossasso.

The United States military flies aerial  surveillance drones from Indian Ocean island nation of Seychelles to  monitor piracy off the East African coast, but Rage said it is not clear whose drone crashed. The U.S. also flies drones that occasionally fire  at Somalia’s Islamic extremist rebels in south and central Somalia. The  al-Shabab rebels Tuesday posted pictures on Twitter of what they claimed was a surveillance drone that had crashed.

Puntland, in northern Somalia, has escaped the decades of conflict seen in the country’s south and central regions.

Source: AP