US Navy drone downed as Gulf tensions build

摘要

AN IRANIAN surface-to-air missile shot down a US Navy RQ-4A unmanned aerial vehicle over the Strait of Hormuz around 2335hrs GMT on June 19. The head of US Central Command (CENTCOM), Lt Gen Joseph Guastella, said: "This was an unprovoked attack on a US surveillance asset that had not violated Iranian airspace at any time during its mission. Iranian reports that this aircraft was shot down over Iran are categorically false. "This dangerous and escalatory attack was irresponsible and occurred in the vicinity of established air corridors between Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Muscat, Oman, possibly endangering innocent civilians." Guastella said the drone was operating at high altitude, 21 miles (34km) from the nearest point of land on the Iranian coast. Both Central Command and Iran posted differing tracking images of the UAV's flight path to prove their claims of where it was when it was shot down. In a later Tweet on June 20, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said some wreckage from the RQ-4A had been retrieved from Iranian waters and posted several images of wrecked components. He said radio warnings had been issued twice before it was targeted and destroyed by an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) air defence system.