US Ends Search for Downed Chinese Balloon Debris, Other Objects

The suspected Chinese spy balloon drifts to the ocean after being shot down off the coast in Surfside Beach, South Carolina, US, Feb. 4, 2023. (Reuters)
The suspected Chinese spy balloon drifts to the ocean after being shot down off the coast in Surfside Beach, South Carolina, US, Feb. 4, 2023. (Reuters)
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US Ends Search for Downed Chinese Balloon Debris, Other Objects

The suspected Chinese spy balloon drifts to the ocean after being shot down off the coast in Surfside Beach, South Carolina, US, Feb. 4, 2023. (Reuters)
The suspected Chinese spy balloon drifts to the ocean after being shot down off the coast in Surfside Beach, South Carolina, US, Feb. 4, 2023. (Reuters)

The United States has ended its search for debris from an alleged Chinese surveillance balloon it shot down earlier this month as well as two other objects downed near Alaska and on Lake Huron, the military's Northern Command said Friday.

"Recovery operations concluded February 16 off the coast of South Carolina, after US Navy assets assigned to US Northern Command successfully located and retrieved debris from the high-altitude PRC surveillance balloon," NORTHCOM said in a statement, referring to the People's Republic of China.

"Final pieces of debris are being transferred to the Federal Bureau of Investigation Laboratory in Virginia for counterintelligence exploitation," it added.

The Chinese balloon traveled across much of the United States before it was shot down over the Atlantic Ocean by a US F-22 Raptor on February 4, said AFP.

Beijing insisted the device was for weather surveillance and had gone astray, while Washington described it as a sophisticated high-altitude spying vehicle.

Relations between China and the United States have grown increasingly tense over the balloon incident.

Late Friday, NORTHCOM announced in another statement that it was ending searches for two other objects shot down -- one off Alaska's northern coast on February 10 and the other over Lake Huron on February 12.

"The US military, federal agencies, and Canadian partners conducted systematic searches of each area using a variety of capabilities, including airborne imagery and sensors, surface sensors and inspections, and subsurface scans, and did not locate debris," the statement said.

President Joe Biden in a press conference this week about the aerial objects said that preliminary evidence suggested the Alaska and Lake Huron incidents were not related to a broader Chinese spy program.



Türkiye Says Arrests 153 Suspected ISIS Members, Associates

FILE PHOTO: People enjoy the sunset in Ankara, Türkiye January 4, 2022. REUTERS/Cagla Gurdogan/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: People enjoy the sunset in Ankara, Türkiye January 4, 2022. REUTERS/Cagla Gurdogan/File Photo
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Türkiye Says Arrests 153 Suspected ISIS Members, Associates

FILE PHOTO: People enjoy the sunset in Ankara, Türkiye January 4, 2022. REUTERS/Cagla Gurdogan/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: People enjoy the sunset in Ankara, Türkiye January 4, 2022. REUTERS/Cagla Gurdogan/File Photo

Türkiye has arrested 153 presumed members of ISIS in nationwide raids, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on Friday.

The arrests took place from Izmir and Mugla in the west and southwest, to Hatay and Mardin in the southeast and Samsun on the northern Black Sea coast.

"In the course of operations in 28 provinces over the past two weeks, our military police have detained 153 presumed members of the terrorist organization" ISIS, Yerlikaya said on X.

The suspects "have provided funds to affiliated groups" and are accused of "propaganda that benefits a terrorist organization," he said, according to AFP.

Yerlikaya said the police had acted on information from Turkish intelligence services and cooperation from authorities abroad.

Türkiye shares an 800-kilometer (500-mile) border with Syria, where ISIS claimed responsibility in late May for an attack on the new government forces in the south of the country.