Alwaght- A German warship dispatched to the Red Sea waters under a European mission to secure navigation could have struck an American drone by mistake, German media outlets reported on Wednesday.
The German defence ministry confirmed a drone incident involving an allied nation occurred on Monday, without naming the country.
The "Hesse" frigate opened fire after efforts to identify an unknown drone "were unsuccessful", Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said during a visit to the German town of Oberviechtach, adding however that the target was "not hit".
The drone later turned out to be a "reconnaissance drone", he said.
According to Der Spiegel weekly, the frigate fired two missiles at the drone but both crashed into the sea because of "a technical defect".
Spiegel, without citing its sources, said the drone that was nearly downed was a US Reaper.
The Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper said it was "common knowledge that American combat drones are used in the region that have nothing to do with the operation in the Red Sea".
Spiegel said military officials believed the friendly fire incident showed that coordination between allies involved in various missions in the region around Yemen "needs to be improved".
The "Hesse" arrived in the region at the weekend as part of an EU mission to help secure international shipping in the Red Sea.
On February 19, European Union announced a Red Sea naval mission to protect European shipping from so-called attacks by Yemen's Ansarullah move which insists that its operations only target Israeli ships as Sana’a imposes a ban on Israeli ships and ports in solidarity with Gaza.
France, Germany, Italy and Belgium have said they plan to contribute ships to the mission, but that the coalition will avoid clashes with Ansarullah or airstrikes on Yemen.
