Iran says Revolutionary Guard shot down U.S. drone

PanARMENIAN.Net - Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard force said Thursday, June 20 it shot down a U.S. "spy drone" over its territory, Iranian state television reported, according to Al Jazeera.

An anonymous U.S. official later told news agencies an American naval drone was downed over international airspace.

"The U.S.-made Global Hawk surveillance drone was brought down" in the country's southern coastal province of Hormozgan, the Revolutionary Guard was quoted as saying by the English-language Press TV.

"It was shot down when it entered Iran's airspace near the Kouhmobarak district in the south," the force's website said.

State television did not provide images of the aircraft.

The U.S. military initially denied the report.

"There was no drone over Iranian territory," Navy Captain Bill Urban, a U.S. Central Command spokesman, told The Associated Press. He declined further comment.

However an American official, speaking on condition of anonymity, later said a U.S. Navy MQ-4C Triton drone was brought down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile in international airspace over the Strait of Hormuz.

No further details were immediately available, including the time of the shootdown.