Image of 'UFO' flying over Iraq city is seen for the first time in classified ... trends now
DailyMail.com obtained an exclusive image of a metallic-looking orb flying over an Iraqi city, caught on video by a US spy plane.
The image, captured in April 2016 by an intelligence-reconnaissance plane, was included in a classified briefing video on UFOs shown to multiple US government agencies.
The briefing video describes it as a 'short clip of an unidentified flying orb that appears to have a metallic shine on its surface', and shows the strange object flying over the city of Mosul in northern Iraq with the background of the shot showing the streets below.
It is the first publicly revealed image from the US government's ongoing UFO investigation showing an unidentified craft over a conflict zone.
A UFO flying around where the US military is operating has sparked security and safety concerns at the Department of Defense, with military officials worried it could endanger pilots and ground troops.
An image obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com of what appears to be a metallic-looking orb flying over Mosul, Iraq in April 2016, was included in a classified briefing video on UFOs shown to multiple US government agencies (image credit: DoD/Jeremy Corbell)
One intelligence source said the video was sent to the Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia, where imagery and electronic signals intelligence experts studied it for United States Central Command (CENTCOM)
Although the image itself is not classified, footage from which the image was captured was part of a classified briefing produced by the Pentagon's Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF), a unit tasked with investigating UFO incidents, which has now been replaced by another office in the Department of Defense.
It was obtained by journalists Jeremy Corbell and George Knapp, who have released the image on their new UFO podcast, '"Weaponized'.
The briefing describes and shows the UFO as moving from south to north, adding that it does not appear to descend.
In a four-second video titled 'Mosul Orb' included in the briefing, the UFO appears for one second as it flies alongside the MC-12 spy plane.
The photo was obtained by documentary filmmaker and investigative journalist Jeremy Corbell (pictured) and journalist George Knapp
Intriguingly, the object appears to have no apparent flight surfaces like wings, or discernible propulsion.
An intelligence source with operational knowledge of the footage said it was filmed using 'FMV [full motion video] by DGS-1' – implying that the plane sensors captured infra-red and other data when it filmed the UFO.
DailyMail.com understands that officials who assembled the briefing video believe the 'orb' was under intelligent control.
One intelligence source said the video was sent to the Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia, where imagery and electronic signals intelligence experts studied it for United States Central Command (CENTCOM).
Despite being analyzed and studied by intelligence experts for over six years, the incident remains unexplained.
DailyMail.com can now reveal that the case formed part of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) Preliminary Assessment on UFOs, a report published in May 2021 which analyzed 144 cases and found an explanation for just one.
It comes a few months after the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) published a second UFO report this month, which said it has analyzed 510 cases up to August 30, 2022
The ODNI published a second report this month, which said it has analyzed 510 cases up to August 30, 2022.
In October last year DailyMail.com revealed information from the classified version of this report sent to Congress.
One source who had seen the report described dozens of videos on classified servers showing metallic-looking orbs captured by US spy planes or drones in the Middle East – similar to the image released today.
'These drones operate 20-25,000 feet up in the air and they're flying around. We're keeping an eye on bad guys all over the world,' the source said.
'An operator will be zoomed in looking at a town in Syria. And all of a sudden, a little orb will go flying through the viewfinder.
'The operator's like, ''What the hell?'' And so he starts focusing on it and he just watches the orb for a while. We might get it for 30 seconds, we might watch it for 10 minutes. And then it will do something remarkable, like suddenly bolt off the screen.'
The image obtained by DailyMail.com was taken at 9:47am Coordinated Universal Time on April 16, 2016, according to its timestamp.
There were also precise coordinates of where the image was taken in northern Iraq, but Corbell told DailyMail.com he removed them out of an abundance of caution to avoid the release of sensitive information.
CENTCOM forces have been deployed in the Middle East since 2014 to conduct military operations against ISIS.
DailyMail.com understands that Congressional intelligence and defense committees have seen the image and footage, as part of a briefing given by the
