Iran shoots down U.S. Army drone

PanARMENIAN.Net - Iran's military said it shot down a U.S. Army drone inside its territory near the Afghan and Pakistani borders on Sunday, December 4, and threatened to retaliate for the violation, AFP reported citing Iranian media.

The NATO-led military force in Afghanistan said the drone reportedly shot down by Iran "may" belong to the United States.

"The UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) to which the Iranians are referring may be a US unarmed reconnaissance aircraft that had been flying a mission over western Afghanistan late last week," the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said.

"The operators of the UAV lost control of the aircraft and had been working to determine its status," the statement said without elaborating on the type of drone.

Iran's Al-Alam Arabic language satellite channel, quoting a military source in Iran's joint chiefs of staff, said late Sunday that a RQ-170 unmanned aerial vehicle was shot down "a few hours ago."

The Fars news agency, which has close ties to the Revolutionary Guards responsible for Iran's air defense and ballistic missile systems, said the drone had made an incursion into Iran's eastern airspace.

"Our air defense and electronic warfare units managed to identify and shoot down an advanced unmanned spy aircraft - an RQ-170 - after it briefly violated the eastern border territory," Fars said.

Quoting an unnamed military source, Fars said the drone "was downed with slight damage." "It is now under the control of our forces."

The source warned that Iran's armed response would "not be limited to our country's borders" for the "blatant territorial violation."

No images of the drone said to have been shot down were immediately published by any of the media carrying the reports.

The RQ-170 Sentinel is a high-altitude reconnaissance drone whose existence was revealed in 2009 by specialized reviews and later confirmed by the U.S. Air Force in 2010.