Iran Shoots Down U.S. Naval Drone in Persian Gulf Region, U.S. and Iranian Officials Say by Erin Cunningham – Washington Post
Iran shot down a U.S. naval surveillance drone near the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian and U.S. officials said Thursday, adding to weeks of tensions in the Persian Gulf region amid growing concerns of a wider military confrontation.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said in a statement that it targeted the drone — which it identified as an RQ-4 Global Hawk — inside Iranian airspace over the southern province of Hormozgan, next to the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
The U.S. Central Command confirmed the incident Thursday but denied the aircraft was in Iranian airspace.
“U.S. Central Command can confirm that a U.S. Navy . . . aircraft was shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile system while operating in international airspace over the Strait of Hormuz,” a Centcom spokesman, Capt. Bill Urban, said in a statement…