The US shot down a huge Chinese balloon flying over its territory with a missile.
The US has accused the balloon of spying on major military sites across the country.
The US Department of Defense has confirmed that its fighter jets dropped the balloon in US territorial waters.
Likewise, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed its strong dissatisfaction and opposition to the use of US forces to attack unmanned non-military aircraft.
American television footage showed the balloon falling into the ocean after a small explosion.
An F-22 fighter jet fired an AIM-9X Sidewinder missile to shoot down the high-altitude balloon.
Defense officials told US media that the wreckage fell in 47 meters of water near Mytle Beach in South Carolina, the BBC wrote.
Now the US military is trying to remove the wreckage of the balloon, which is spread over 11 kilometers.
Two warships have been deployed for this task. A warship also has a heavy crane.
In a statement released by the Pentagon, a senior US defense official said, “We have taken all necessary measures against the surveillance balloon’s collection of sensitive information.
Flying balloons over American territory is a matter of intelligence importance to us. It is valuable that we can study and investigate the balloon and its equipment.”
US President Joe Biden has been under pressure to drop it ever since defense officials first reported that they were pursuing it on Thursday.
Diplomatic relations between China and America have also been affected due to this balloon scandal.
Citing this ‘irresponsible action’ as the reason, the US Foreign Minister Antony Blinken’s visit to China, which was scheduled to take place this week, has been canceled immediately.
The Chinese government has been saying that this is not a spy plane but a weather study plane.
The balloon in the sky of Latin America is ours: China
The Chinese government has admitted that it owns the giant balloon seen in the skies over Latin America on Friday.
However, China claimed that it was for non-military purposes, the BBC wrote.
Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning said that the balloon must have lost its way due to the speed of the wind.
On Saturday, a similar unmanned aircraft was shot down by a missile from a military fighter plane.
The United States had accused China of using the balloon for spying on its major military complexes.
China has denied the accusation of espionage and said that the balloon was used for weather observation.
Due to this incident, the existing diplomatic relations between China and America have also been affected.
Before the balloon was shot down from the American sky, the US military said that a second Chinese balloon was seen in the sky of Latin America.
This weekend, the Colombian Air Force reported that a similar balloon-like object was found on February 3 at 55,000 feet in its skies.
The US military is collecting the debris of the downed balloons from its waters.
China was criticized for using the military to shoot down its balloon from American skies.
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Credit: Agency