CIA drone 'part of fleet spying on Iran'
United States officials say a drone that crashed inside Iran over the weekend was one of a fleet of stealth aircraft that have spied on Iran for years from a United States air base in Afghanistan.
They say the CIA stealth-version of the RQ-170 unmanned craft was also used to survey Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, before the raid in May in which he was killed.
According to these officials, the US has built up the air base in Shindand, Afghanistan, with an eye to keeping a long-term presence there to launch surveillance missions and even special operations missions into Iran if deemed necessary. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss classified information. The officials say that while no specific mission into Iran has been authorised, the military has contingency plans for such clandestine missions.
The RQ-170, also known as the Sentinel and dubbed "the Beast of Kandahar" in 2007 when its existence was finally confirmed, is so advanced that the US Air Force has not even distributed a photo of it. It is manufactured by Lockheed Martin and is equipped with stealth technology.
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