Originally Posted by Daily Telegraph 21 Jun 2011
An attack helicopter which Libyan government forces claimed to have shot down on Tuesday was a new type of unmanned drone, United States defence sources said. A Nato spokesman denied that enemy fire had brought down the MQ-8B Fire Scout, a small helicopter equipped with cameras and sensors for surveillance flights of naval ships. Contact with it was lost early on Tuesday in Libya's central coastal area...
Throughout the day on Tuesday Libyan state television repeatedly broadcast images of what appeared to be aircraft wreckage, including shots of a red rotor and close-ups of markings in English. A spokesman claimed that an Apache ground attack helicopter had been downed in Zlitan, a town 85 miles east of the capital.The Libyan government has repeatedly claimed to have shot down aircraft, including five Apaches, which have been flown by British pilots on ground attack missions since last month...