US military shoot down di fourth flying object ova North America

Di US don shoot down anoda unidentified flying object for di fourth military operation of im kind dis month.


President Joe Biden order make dem down am near Lake Huron, close to di Canadian border, on Sunday afternoon.

Di object could fit don interfere wit commercial air traffic as e dey travel at 20,000ft (6,100m), one Pentagon statement tok.

Dem first detect am above military sites for Montana on Saturday, e add.

Di object, di defence officials don describe di object wey dem say no be military threat, as an unmanned "octagonal structure" wit strings attached to am. Na one F-16 fighter jet dem use down di object at 14:42 local time (19:42 GMT).

Di incident raise further questions about di spate of high-altitude objects wey dem don shoot down ova North America dis month.

Dem bring down one suspected Chinese spy balloon off di coast of South Carolina on 4 February afta e bin dey fly for days ova di continental US. Officials say dem no originate am for China and e don dey used to monitor sensitive sites.

China deny say dem use di object to spy and say na weather monitoring device wey bin don blow astray. Di incident - and di angry exchanges for im aftermath - ratchet up tensions between Washington and Beijing.

But on Sunday, one defence official say di US bin don communicate wit Beijing about di first object afta dem receive no response for several days. E no immediately dey clear wetin dem discuss.

Since dat first incident, American fighter jets don shoot down three further high-altitude objects for as many days.

President Biden order make dem shoot down one object over northern Alaska on Friday, and on Saturday dem shoot down one similar object ova di Yukon for north-western Canada.

Officials neva publicly identify di origin or purpose of dis objects. Both di US and Canada still dey work to recover di remnants, but di Arctic conditions don hamper di search for Alaska.

"Dis objects no closely resemble, and bin dey much smaller than, di [4 February] balloon and we no go definitively characterise dem until we fit recover di debris," one White House National Security tok-tok pesin tok am.

Unidentified flying objects – wetin be di timeline

4 February: US military shoots down suspected surveillance balloon off di coast of South Carolina. E bin don drift for days over di US, and officials say e come from China and e bin don dey monitor sensitive sites

10 February: US downs anoda object off northern Alaska wey officials say e lack any system of propulsion or control

11 February: One American fighter jet shoot down one "high-altitude airborne object" ova Canada Yukon territory, about 100 miles (160 km) from di US border. Dem describe am as cylindrical and smaller than di first balloon

12 February: US jets shoot down one fourth high-altitude object near Lake Huron "out of an abundance of caution"