Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) shot down a US drone on Thursday amid heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington, American and Iranian officials said, while disputing the circumstances of the incident.
The Guard said it shot down the drone over Iranian airspace, while two US officials told The Associated Press that the downing happened over international airspace in the Strait of Hormuz.
Previously, the US military alleged that Iran had fired a missile at another drone last week that was responding to the attack on two oil tankers near the Gulf of Oman. The US blames Iran for the attack on the ships.
The attacks come against the backdrop of heightened tensions between the US and Iran following President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from Tehran's 2015 nuclear deal a year ago.
In recent weeks, the US has sped an aircraft carrier to the Mideast and deployed additional troops to the tens of thousands already in the region.
The IRGC said it shot down the drone on Thursday morning when it entered Iranian airspace near the Kouhmobarak district in southern Iran's Hormozgan province.
Kouhmobarak is some 1,200 kilometers southeast of Tehran and close to the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran's state-run IRNA news agency, citing the Guard, identified the drone as an RQ-4 Global Hawk.
The US officials told the AP the Iranians fired a surface-to-air missile striking the American drone. The officials said the incident happened over the Strait of Hormuz in international airspace.
Later Thursday, the US military's Central Command said Iran's shooting down of the drone was an "unprovoked attack" in international airspace.
"Iranian reports that the aircraft was over Iran are false," said Navy Captain Bill Urban, a spokesman for the Central Command.
"This was an unprovoked attack on a US surveillance asset in international airspace."
He said the shoot-down took place in international airspace over the Strait of Hormuz at approximately 11:35 p.m. GMT on June 19, 2019.
IRGC commander Gen. Hossein Salami, speaking to a crowd in the western city of Sanandaj, described the American drone as "violating our national security border."
"Borders are our red line," Salami said. "Any enemy that violates the borders will be annihilated."
