The US Air Force believes that an electrical issue, not enemy fire, caused its MQ-9 Reaper to crash in northern Syria on Tuesday, a spokesman told Air Force Magazine by email. Following the crash, ISIS-affiliated fighters posted video of the wreckage and claimed they shot down the remotely piloted aircraft.
Islamic State-affiliated fighters said that that they had shot the aircraft down over the town of Taqbah, approximately 50 km west of Raqqa. These fighters also posted video of themselves examining items from the crashed Reaper, including a power module and the tail sections from two AGM-114 Hellfire air-to-surface missiles.
However, the service said the RPA was not brought down by enemy fire when announcing the mishap. The investigation into the cause of the crash is ongoing, the spokesman said, but “there are no indications that Daesh [another term for ISIS] had anything to do with this”.
Source: Air Force Magazine