Both the U.S. and Iran said Thursday that Iranian forces had shot down an American military surveillance drone, but the two sides offered conflicting details on the incident, which is likely to further escalate already soaring tensions in the Middle East. A U.S. official told the AP and Reuters news agencies that a U.S. Navy MQ-4C Triton drone was hit by an Iranian surface-to-air missile in international airspace over the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran, however, said its elite Revolutionary Guard shot down an RQ-4 Global Hawk drone as it flew over Iran. Iran’s Foreign Ministry issued a condemnation of the purported violation of its airspace and warned of a strong reaction to what it called a “provocative” act by the U.S.
The U.S. military has denied that any of its aircraft were operating over Iran at the time.
The incidents come amid warnings that an accident or miscommunication in the Persian Gulf could lead to a conflict between the U.S. and Iran, which have been increasingly at odds since President Donald Trump’s move last year to pull the U.S. unilaterally out of the 2015 nuclear agreement negotiated by his predecessor and other world powers.
