US says it destroyed a small Islamic State drone aircraft near Fallujah

WASHINGTON – The U.S. military says it bombed an Islamic State drone aircraft in Iraq that was being used for battlefield surveillance.

A spokesman for the U.S. military command in charge of the conflict against the Islamic State said Wednesday that the drone was a small, unarmed hand-held type of the sort that can be purchased commercially.

The spokesman, Maj. Kim Michelsen, said that Islamic State fighters had been flying the drone for a short time before placing it in a vehicle. A U.S. airstrike hit the vehicle near the city of Fallujah in western Iraq. He said the drone was targeted because it was being used for surveillance along IS front lines.