Iran claims to have shot down US drone
An image of the drone, according to Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency. Photo: IRNA
Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency is claiming the country’s Revolutionary Guard has shot down a US drone.
The claim is being reported by the US’s Associated Press, which said the US military had declined to immediately comment.
The drone incident came as Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis also said they had struck a power station in Saudi Arabia with a cruise missile.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said US President Donald Trump had been briefed on the details of the Saudi missile strike.
The Houthis said earlier they had struck a power station in Al-Shuqaiq city, in the Saudi province of Jizan, with a cruise missile, according to the group’s Al Masirah TV.
There was no immediate confirmation from Saudi authorities.
The Houthis, who ousted the Saudi-backed internationally recognised government from power in the Yemeni capital Sanaa in late 2014, have stepped up missile and drone attacks on Saudi cities in the past fortnight.
Iranian media say the countries Revolutionary Guard shoots down a U.S. drone; US military declines to comment. https://t.co/JRKdSldWXa
— The Associated Press (@AP) June 20, 2019
Meanwhile, IRNA said the US drone was hit when it entered Iranian airspace near the Kouhmobarak district, in the country’s southern Hormozgan province.
IRNA, citing the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, identified the drone as an RQ-4 Global Hawk.
A US RQ-4 Global Hawk, similar to the one Iran says it has shot down.
US Central Command spokesman Captain Bill Urban declined to comment. However, he told The Associated Press: “There was no drone over Iranian territory.”
The reported shooting down comes amid heightened tensions between Iran and the US since Mr Trump said a year ago that he would withdraw America from Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers.
The US said on Tuesday it would send a further 1000 troops to the Middle East following attacks on oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman last week that it blamed on Iran, and Tehran’s announcement that it plans to increase its stockpile of enriched uranium.
-with AAP
