'Lost' 13.77 mln dollar US drone in Syria raises fears its technology might fall into enemies' hands

The United States has lost one of its unmanned aircrafts (UAV) while it was flying over Syria's Latakia province and was shot down by the country's air defences.

The aircraft is believed to be an unarmed MQ-9 Reaper which costs about 13.77 million dollars and is used primarily for intelligence gathering and surveillance, reported The Daily Express.

A U.S. official said that it was unclear how the drone was taken down and added that a probe has been launched into the incident.

The U.S. has developed 104 of the 11-metre aircraft since they were introduced in May 2007.

The incident bears disturbing similarities to Iran's capture of a U.S. drone in December 2011 when the country's cyberwarfare unit claimed that they had landed a drone after hacking into it.

The nation then stole secret data from the aircraft fuelling fears that the U.S. technology may end up in China or Russia.

Iran also released footage from the drone in February 2013 to prove it had "fully decoded" all the data.