The U.S. has completed the search for wreckage of a Chinese aerostat it shot down earlier this month, as well as two other objects shot down near Alaska and in Lake Huron, AFP reported, citing the U.S. military's Northern Command.

Search operations ended Feb. 16 off the coast of South Carolina, after U.S. Navy forces attached to U.S. Northern Command found and retrieved debris from a PRC high-altitude surveillance balloon, said a statement from U.S. Northern Command.

The latest fragments of the wreckage are being transferred to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's lab in Virginia for counterintelligence use, the statement also notes. 

The Chinese balloon, allegedly intended to gather intelligence - Beijing denies this - was in the skies over Canada and the United States for a week before President Joe Biden ordered its downing. The episode strained relations between Washington and Beijing, causing Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to postpone his trip to China.