Accordingly, the incident occurred as early as 1. November over international waters about 30 kilometers from the iranian coast. The drone was not hit and returned safely to its base, said defense department spokesman george little.
Iran contradicted this statement. An "unknown" aircraft that had entered iranian airspace was fired upon, iran’s fars news agency wrote on friday. "Thanks to the vigilance and determination of the iranian forces, the plane was forced to flee," defense minister ahmad vahidi was quoted as saying. Iran used all possible channels, including international organizations, to pursue the invasion.
Both the U.S. Government and iran have remained silent about the incident. He first came to light on thursday through US media reports. Asked by journalists why the pentagon did not make the shelling public itself five days before the u.S. Presidential election, the spokesman replied: "we don’t normally make a fuss about secret reconnaissance missions."
Little initially told reporters that only one iranian jet was involved, but later corrected the figure to two planes by e-mail. The U.S. Assumed that the goal was to bring down the aircraft, the spokesman said. She says it was shot at at least twice and then tracked for several more miles as it flew back and forth.
The U.S. Had expressed concern to iran about the incident, the spokesman continued. They had also made it clear that they would continue their observation flights over international waters. It serves safety.
Little spoke of a hitherto unique incident. Questions from journalists about whether it was an "act of war" were evaded by the spokesman. He simply said, "the U.S. Has a wide range of options, diplomatic and military, to protect our military equipment and our strike forces in the region. And we will do it if necessary."
The case brings back memories of the drone crisis at the end of 2011. On 4. December 2011 a "predator" had fallen almost unscathed into the hands of the iranians. Tehran initially said it had been shot down and later said it had intercepted the unmanned aircraft with electronic commands. The USA claimed that the drone had gone out of control during a mission in afghanistan and crashed near the border. According to iran, it fell near kashmar about 200 kilometers from the afghan border.
The MQ-1 "predator" can stay in the air for a whole day. It has cameras for daylight, infrared cameras for bad weather and night vision, and a special radar that can separate and clearly distinguish very fine, closely spaced details of an object.
Meanwhile, the U.S. On thursday imposed new punitive measures against iran for censorship. They accuse the regime in tehran of, among other things, drastically hindering their citizens’ access to the internet and international television broadcasts.
According to the U.S. Department of the treasury, the sanctions specifically target the iranian ministry of culture, which is responsible for the imprisonment of journalists and the closure of newspapers, and the minister of information technology, reza taghipour. Other officials "who are involved in the ongoing attempts to … Involved in oppressing and muzzling the iranian people".
Under the sanctions, any assets of the affected individuals or companies in the U.S. Will be frozen. U.S. Burgers and companies were also not allowed to do business with them.