An unmanned surveillance aircraft has gone down on the outskirts of al-Kut city in the southern Iraqi province of Wasit which borders Iran, Press TV reported.

A local police source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Voices of Iraq news agency that the drone crashed on Friday close to the Delta Base of American forces. The base is situated seven kilometers (5 miles) west of al-Kut.

Unmanned US drones on a regular basis venture the Iraqi air space to apparently track down insurgents and also save American lives in conflict-plagued Iraq.

Pentagon officials say that these remotely piloted planes have become one of the US military's favorite weapons despite many technical shortcomings resulting from the rush to get them operating.

American Air Force officials acknowledge that more than a third of their unmanned Predator spy planes which are 27 feet long, powered by a high-performance snowmobile engine, and cost 4.5 million dollars apiece have crashed, mostly in Iraq and Afghanistan.