According to Agence France-Presse on June 20, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard said on June 20 that it shot down an American "spy drone" violating Iranian airspace near the Strait of Hormuz. This is the latest incident to escalate tensions in this strategically significant maritime corridor.
The Revolutionary Guard said in a statement that the U.S. unmanned reconnaissance aircraft was shot down by a missile "after violating Iranian airspace" in the waters of Hormuzgan Province.
According to Reuters on June 20, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard announced on its news website that it had shot down an American "spy" UAV in Holmuzgan Province on the Persian Gulf coast.
Iran's state news agency said it was a RQ-4 "Global Hawk" UAV.
The Revolutionary Guard website also declared: "This UAV was shot down after entering Iranian airspace near the Kumubarak area."
The manufacturer Northrop Grumman said on its website that the RQ-4 Global Hawk UAV can fly at high altitude for more than 30 hours and collect near real-time high-resolution images of large areas of land under various climatic conditions.
The U.S. military recently confirmed that Iran tried to shoot down a U.S. drone last week.
According to an Associated Press report on June 20, the US Central Command confirmed that Iran shot down a US RQ-4 Global Hawk UAV and said that the attack took place in international airspace and was an "unprovoked attack".
A statement from the US Central Command said that the UAV was "shot down by Iran's surface-to-air missile system in the international airspace of the Strait of Hormuz" earlier in the 20th.
The statement also said that "Iran's claim that the aircraft is in Iranian airspace is wrong" and "this is an unprovoked attack on US reconnaissance assets in international airspace".
Iran sends a "clear and unambiguous signal"
Reuters reported that a senior Iranian security official said on the 20th that Iran would respond "strongly" to any violation of its airspace.
"Our airspace is our red line, and Iran has been and will continue to respond strongly to any country that violates our airspace," the semi-official Tasnim news agency quoted the Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council as saying.
British media quoted the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting Agency as reporting that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard said a US drone shot down on the 20th had shut down its transponder.
The Radio Agency of the Islamic Republic of Iran quoted a statement from the Revolutionary Guard as saying: "The UAV took off from a US military base in the southern Persian Gulf... The aircraft violated the aviation regulations and shut down all identification equipment. It flew in complete secrecy."
Agence France-Presse reported that the commander-in-chief of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard said Iran's shooting down of the U.S. drone sent a "clear and unambiguous signal" that Iran would defend its borders.
Tasnim news agency quoted Hussein Salami as saying that Iran will "respond to all foreign aggression, whether now or in the future, our response is clear and unambiguous".
"We declare that we do not want war, but we are ready to respond to any declaration of war," he added.
"The United States does not seek conflict with Iran, but we are prepared to defend American forces and interests in the region," a Pentagon spokesman said in a statement.
Fears of confrontation between Iran and the United States have intensified since two oil tankers were attacked in the Gulf of Oman last week.
In addition, according to a report on the website of the New York Times on June 19, U.S. Trump officials are briefing Congress on their so-called "relationship" between Iran and al-Qaida. This has aroused doubts and concerns in the US Congress, fearing that the White House may invoke the Act on Authorization of the Use of Military Forces passed by Congress in 2001 as a legal excuse for military action against Tehran. It is worth noting that this happened before Iran shot down the US UAV.
Some U.S. officials say that at a time of heightened tensions between the United States and Iraq, U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo and Pentagon officials have told lawmakers and congressional aides in recent weeks that they believe Iran is "related" to the organization.
These Trump officials did not say in front of a large number of parliamentarians and congressional aides that the Authorization of the Use of Military Forces Act passed in 2001 would enable the Trump government to fight against Iraq. The law allows the United States to wage war against al-Qaida and its allies or affiliates. U.S. President Trump has said he does not want to start a war, but in the past month he has ordered an additional 2,500 troops to the Middle East in response to what U.S. officials call a heightened threat.
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