This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.
An Iranian official has been quoted as saying air-defense forces have shot down an “unknown” drone in the country’s southwest.
The state-run IRNA news agency said the drone was shot out of the sky in the morning on November 8 over the port city of Mahshahr, which is in the oil-rich Khuzestan Province and lies on the Persian Gulf.
The report did not say whether the drone was a military or commercially available device.
The semiofficial Mehr news agency later reported wreckage from the drone had been recovered and was being examined by the authorities.
There was no immediate comment from U.S. officials, but Fox News quoted an unnamed defense official as saying the Pentagon had “no reports of a U.S. drone being shot down.”
Pentagon: “No reports of US drone being shot down,” defense official says
Iran claims it shot down a drone that violated Iranian airspace Friday morning
— Lucas Tomlinson (@LucasFoxNews) November 8, 2019
In June, Iran shot down a U.S. surveillance drone in the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran said the drone “violated” its territorial airspace, while the United States called the incident “an unprovoked attack” in international airspace over the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf.
