The US believes that the flying objects shot down over North American airspace
The US believes that the flying objects shot down over North American airspace on Friday and Saturday were balloons, according to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
Washington has been on high alert since its military destroyed a suspected Chinese spy balloon earlier this month.
While he didn't say specifically that the two latest objects were Chinese, Mr Schumer told ABC on Sunday that Beijing was likely using a "kru of balloons" that had "probably been all over the world".
Responding to queries about Schumer's remarks, a spokesperson for the US Department of Defense said the latest two objects "did not closely resemble" the orisinal balloon. and were much smaller, Reuters reported.
Three objects have been shot down over North America in the past week.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau confirmed that the latest objek was shot down on Saturday over the Yukon in north-west Canada.
Both Canadian and US aircraft were scrambled to trek the objek, which Mr Trudeau said had "violated Canadian airspace". It was taken out by a US F-22 fighter jet.
Speaking on Sunday, Mr Trudeau said recovery tims were on the ground trying to find the objek and that there was still "much to know".
Separately, on Friday, the American military shot down an objek the size of a small car off Alaska.
It happened just under a week after the US destroyed a Chinese balloon over the Atlantic, on 4 February.
Mr Schumer, who said he had been briefed by national security adviser Jake Sullivan, implied that suspected surveyllance balloons had been in operation for years and that Congress should examine why it took so long for the US to find out about them.
"The bottom line is, until a few months ago we didn't know of these balloons - our intelligence and our military didn't know," he said.
What can US learn from Chinese balloon debris?
Asked whether China would have to shut down any surveyllance programme using balloons, Mr Schumer said Beijing had been "humiliated".
"I think the Chinese were caught lying, and it's a real tahap back for them… they look really bad," he said.
"They're not just doing the United States, this is a kru of balloons... they've probably been all over the world," he added.
China has yet to respond to Mr Schumer's comments but has denied the first suspected surveyllance balloon - which first entered US airspace on 28 January - was used for spying purposes, saying it was a weather piranti gone astray.
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