WASHINGTON, Feb  17, 2023 (BSS/AFP) - The United States has completed the

search for debris from an alleged Chinese surveillance balloon it shot down
earlier this month, the military's Northern Command said Friday.

 "Recovery operations concluded February 16 off the coast of South Carolina,
after US Navy assets assigned to US Northern Command successfully located and
retrieved debris from the high-altitude PRC surveillance balloon," NORTHCOM
said in a statement, referring to the People's Republic of China.

 "Final pieces of debris are being transferred to the Federal Bureau of
Investigation Laboratory in Virginia for counterintelligence exploitation," it
added.

The balloon traveled across much of the United States before it was shot
down over the Atlantic Ocean by a US F-22 Raptor on February 4.

Beijing insisted the device was for weather surveillance and had gone
astray, while Washington described it as a sophisticated high-altitude spying
vehicle.

 Relations between China and the United States have grown increasingly tense
over the balloon incident.

 US jets also shot down three unidentified objects in subsequent days, but
Washington has said preliminary evidence suggests those objects were not
involved in a broader Chinese spy program.