Nato admits drone downed after Libyan TV claims helicopter hit

NATO confirmed one of its unmanned drones disappeared over Libya, contradicting reports by forces loyal to Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi that they had shot down an alliance attack helicopter.

Images of aircraft wreckages, including shots of a red rotor blade and close-ups of markings in English, were repeatedly screeened by Libyan state television yesterday.

It quoted an unnamed Libyan military official saying a Nato Apache attack helicopter crashed in Zlitan, about 85 miles east of the capital, Tripoli. The report claimed it was the fifth Apache that had been downed - a charge the alliance has denied.

Wing Commander Mike Bracken, an alliance spokesman, said Nato instead lost radar contact with an unmanned helicopter drone along the coast in central Libya, and is investigating. He said the drone was on an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance mission.

"This is the first piece of hardware I am aware of that has been lost (since Nato's air campaign began]," Wg Cmdr Bracken said. An American F-15E jet crashed near the rebel stronghold of Benghazi in March before Nato assumed command of the international intervention in Libya.

A coalition including France, Britain and the United States began striking Col Gaddafi's forces under a United Nations resolution to protect civilians on 19 March. Nato assumed control of the air campaign over Libya on 31 March. Its efforts have been supported by a number of Arab allies. It was not clear whether ground fire or a mechanical failure brought down the drone.

Britain and France began deploying attack helicopters as part of the Nato-led mission earlier this month to boost the alliance's firepower and flexibility against Col Gaddafi's forces.

Nato had previously relied on jets that generally fly above 15,000ft - nearly three miles high. The attack helicopters give the alliance a key advantage in close-up combat, flying at much lower altitudes. Airstrikes by attack jets remain the backbone of Nato's Libya campaign, however.

At least one distant explosion rumbled across Tripoli yesterday as warplanes roared overhead.

What started as a peaceful uprising inside the country against Col Gaddafi and his more than four-decade rule has devolved into a civil war.

Rebels control the eastern third of the country and pockets in the west, and are trying to push their front line forward from their western stronghold of Misrata toward the nearby city of Zlitan.Col Gaddafi forces have countered with barrages of rockets and mortars, and the fighting on the front lines in Dafniya, some 15 miles west of Misrata, has been fierce in recent weeks.

Officials at the front-line hospital in Dafniya said six rebels were killed in overnight clashes, and 50 were wounded.

Rebels are also attacking government forces on a southern front in the Nafusa Mountains near the border with Tunisia.