On the orders of the American president, the United States shot down a "high-flying object" over Alaska on Friday, February 10, a White House spokesman said.

The object, which was "the size of a small car" and flew at an altitude of about 12,000 meters, posed "a threat to the safety of air traffic", said John Kirby, spokesman for the Security Council of the White House, without giving details of its nature or origin.

"We don't know who owns it, if it's a state or a company or an individual, we don't know. (...) And for now, we don't understand its use," said he assured.

President Joe Biden gave the order to destroy it “this morning,” he said, and it was done by early afternoon (Washington time).

He said that this object was "much smaller" than the Chinese balloon destroyed last Saturday by the United States - which was also flying at a higher altitude.

The US administration became aware "last night" of the presence of this object whose debris fell on frozen waters north of Alaska, near the Canadian border, said John Kirby.

He said the United States would work to recover the debris.

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"We do not know"

Unlike the Chinese balloon, this object did not appear to have a propulsion system or controls to steer it, the spokesperson added.

John Kirby finally indicated that an aerial reconnaissance mission carried out around the object before it was destroyed had established that there was no occupant inside.

Washington had shot down on Saturday off its Atlantic coast a balloon that had flown over sensitive military sites and had been described by Beijing as a "civilian aircraft used for research purposes, mainly meteorological".

Images captured by US military aircraft, however, show that this balloon was well equipped with spy tools.

This diplomatic clash led the head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken to postpone a rare visit to China.

The American authorities are still busy collecting the debris from the balloon in the Atlantic, near the coast of South Carolina.

With AFP

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