A surveillance drone has crashed in the semi-autonomous Puntland region of Somalia, according to Puntland Ports and Anti-piracy Minister Saeed Mohamed Rage.

The drone crashed on Saturday in Qaw, a village located 20 kilometers (12 miles) west of the port city of Bossasso, the minister of the Puntland State of Somalia said.

The US military flies surveillance drones from the Seychelles to monitor piracy off the coast of East Africa.

But Rage said it is not clear whose drone crashed.

Washington has increasingly turned to unmanned aircraft to carry out covert strikes in several countries, such as Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Yemen.

In Somalia, the US is using a new kind of drone, called a kamikaze drone. It functions both as a missile and an intelligence-gathering reconnaissance aircraft.

The US military also uses drones to target al-Shabab fighters in south and central Somalia.

On Tuesday, al-Shabab fighters posted pictures on Twitter of what they said was a surveillance drone that had crashed in Somalia.