The United States Central Command on Friday denied that a drone that Iran claimed to have downed over a port in southwestern Iran was an American drone.
“Alleged reports of a US drone being shot down are incorrect. If a UAS had gone down in the CENTCOM AOR it was not a DoD asset. All US equipment has been accounted for,” it said in a tweet.
Iranian air defense systems claimed they had shot down a UAV near the port city of Mahshahr.
It was also reported that the aircraft was shot down by a Hawk missile, sold to Iran by the US in the 1970s and 1980s.
An Iranian official confirmed that the downed drone belongs to a foreign country. Wreckage has been recovered, he said.
In June, Iran downed a US RQ-4 Global Hawk drone after it entered Iranian airspace near the Kouhmobarak district in southern Iran’s Hormozgan province.
Friday’s incident came as the US prepares to launch its coalition meant to protect shipping in the troubled waters of the Persian Gulf.
The plans to build the coalition of nations, known as Operation Sentinel, were announced by the US following continued tensions with Iran in the region, culminating in the seizure of a British-flagged oil tanker by Iran.
(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)