WASHINGTON _ A Navy reconnaissance drone was shot down by a missile fired from Iran, the Pentagon said Thursday, but U.S. and Iranian military officials disputed whether the unmanned aircraft was in Iranian airspace.
The shootdown follows weeks of escalating tensions between Tehran and Washington, including mine explosions on two oil tankers that the Trump administration has blamed on Iran.
The incident is the most serious military clash between the U.S. and Iran since the Pentagon began beefing up its presence in the Middle East in early May, saying intelligence indicated that Iran was preparing to attack U.S. forces or allies.
U.S. officials have warned in recent days that Iran could face retaliation for any attacks that caused American casualties, and Pentagon officials have been preparing options for limited military strikes.
Iran's Revolutionary Guard said the U.S. drone was downed when it flew into Iranian airspace in Hormozgan province near the Strait of Hormuz, according to Iran's state-run IRNA news agency.
But a U.S. military spokesman, Capt. Bill Urban, said the RQ-4 Global Hawk, a high-altitude drone, was hit at 11:35 p.m. GMT Wednesday by an Iranian surface-to-air missile "while operating in international airspace over the Strait of Hormuz," a vital waterway.
"This was an unprovoked attack on a U.S. surveillance asset in international airspace," he said, but released no video or other evidence showing the plane's location.
The conflicting accounts could not be immediately reconciled.
The Global Hawk is an unarmed drone that flies at high altitudes, sending live video feeds from advanced cameras and other data from sensors to Navy intelligence centers in the region and in the United States.
Abbas Mousavi, a spokesman for Iran's foreign ministry, said Iran cannot condone the "illegal trespassing and invading of the country's skies by any kind of foreign flying object," according to the semiofficial Tasnim news agency.
In a speech carried live on Iranian state television, Gen. Hossein Salami, commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, called the shooting-down "a clear message" to America. Iran, he said, does "not have any intention for war with any country, but we are ready for war."
The Trump administration did not say whether it would respond to the incident.
It occurred four days after the Pentagon said Iran had tried to down another drone, which was flying near one of two oil tankers hit by explosions in the Gulf of Oman. That missile missed the drone by more than half a mile, the Pentagon said.
The U.S. has blamed Iran for attacking the ships with limpet mines attached to the hulls, though it has not released evidence that proves Tehran's involvement. Iran has denied responsibility.
On Thursday, Navy Commander Sean Kido, who is leading the investigation into the tanker explosions, told reporters that "the limpet mine that was used in the attack" resembled "Iranian mines that have already been publicly displayed in Iranian military parades."
The Pentagon has released grainy video and color photographs showing what it says are Iranian sailors removing an unexploded mine from the hull of the Kokuka Courageous, one of the two crippled tankers.
Kido sidestepped questions about whether the U.S. has evidence directly linking Iran to the attack, saying the Navy assessment was that Iran was responsible.
President Donald Trump has said he does not want war with Iran and on Monday called the tanker attacks "very minor," though the downing of a U.S. drone could move him closer to his more hawkish advisors.
The U.S has rapidly built up its military forces in the region since early May, sending an aircraft carrier battle group, a fighter squadron, B-52 bombers, anti-missile batteries and other forces totaling around 8,500 troops. More than 30,000 troops are already stationed there.
