Iran Defies Trump’s Claims: US May Have Shot down Own Drone, Not an Iranian One

By Staff, Agencies

Iran rejected US President Donald Trump’s claim that a US warship has shot down an Iranian Unmanned Aerial System [UAS] in the Strait of Hormuz, stressing it has not lost any drone either in that area or anywhere else.

“We have not lost any drone in the Strait of Hormuz nor anywhere else,” Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Sayyed Abbas Araqchi said in a tweet on Friday.

“I am worried that USS Boxer has shot down their own UAS by mistake!”

His comments came after Trump claimed that the USS Boxer had fired on an Iranian drone on Thursday, shooting it down in the Strait of Hormuz.

“The Boxer took defensive action against an Iranian drone, which had closed into a near distance, approximately 1000 yards, ignoring multiple calls to stand down threatening safety of ship and ship’s crew,” he said at the White House on the same day.

Trump further claimed that Iran’s drone “was immediately destroyed.”

The Pentagon alleged that the Iranian drone was within a “threatening range” of the US ship.

“At approximately 10 am local time, the amphibious ship USS Boxer was in international waters conducting a planned inbound transit of the Strait of Hormuz,” chief Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said in a statement.

“A fixed wing unmanned aerial system [UAS] approached Boxer and closed within a threatening range. The ship took defensive action against the UAS to ensure the safety of the ship and its crew.”