U.S. says 'no indication' Iran shot down reconnaissance drone
NATO's U.S.-led mission in neighboring Afghanistan said however the Iranian report could refer to an unarmed U.S. spy drone that went missing there last week.
By Reuters Tags: Iran Iran nuclearIranian media reported on Sunday that their country's military had shot down a U.S. reconnaissance drone in eastern Iran, but a U.S. official said there was no indication the aircraft had been shot down.
NATO's U.S.-led mission in neighboring Afghanistan said the Iranian report could refer to an unarmed U.S. spy drone that went missing there last week.
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A U.S. Predator drone flies over the moon above Kandahar Air Field, southern Afghanistan |
| Photo by: AP |
The incident comes at a time when Tehran is trying to contain foreign outrage at the storming of the British embassy on Tuesday, after London announced sanctions on Iran's central bank in connection with Iran's nuclear enrichment program.
Iran has announced several times in the past that it shot down U.S., Israeli or British drones, in incidents that did not provoke high-profile responses.
"Iran's military has downed an intruding RQ-170 American drone in eastern Iran," Iran's Arabic-language Al Alam state television network quoted a military source as saying.
"The spy drone, which has been downed with little damage, was seized by the Iranian armed forces," the source said. "The Iranian military's response to the American spy drone's violation of our airspace will not be limited to Iran's borders." Iranian officials were not available to comment further.
NATO's International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan said in a statement: "The UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) to which the Iranians are referring may be a U.S. unarmed reconnaissance aircraft that had been flying a mission over western Afghanistan late last week.
"The operators of the UAV lost control of the aircraft and had been working to determine its status."
A U.S. official, who asked not to be named, said: "There is absolutely no indication up to this point that Iranians shot down this drone."
Tuesday's storming of the British embassy attracted swift condemnation from around the world, further isolating Iran. Britain evacuated its diplomatic staff from Tehran and expelled Iranian diplomats from London in retaliation. Several other EU members like Germany, France and Spain also recalled their ambassadors from Tehran.
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who to regard as the most dependable liars, U.S. Government or Iran?
http:www.tehrantimes.com/politics/93221-iean-shoots-down-us-spy-drone-reports ----The cyber warfare unit managed to take over controls of the drone and bring it down. It is Lockheed Martin RQ-170 'Sentinel' stealth drone; not operated by ISIF.
the US Gov. allways lie.
Why not?
pants on fire...
Iran did not and could not shoot down a drone of any kind. Iran is making a claim that is NOT true and is trying to make it self look stronger than it is. Iran is looking for trouble and should A: be ignored or even better, B: The U.N. and Israel should wipe it off the map. of course this is all my opinion.
me thinks the U.S is lying, and there is no difference between a reconniassance and spy drone, they both do the same thing, infact, they are all one drone but sometime shtey get armed.
If the US inventory is accounted for, maybe the thing was somebody else's.
as always with the Muslim President, never oh never will he point to another Muslim. Heck He even killed of Navy Seals as Sect of State Hilary & CIA director Leon the whimp where going to take out Osama so he killed off our best MEN
Iranians didn't shoot it down. They lost the drone in Afghanistan but then an Iranian who was just walking a leisurely walk around arrived, put that tiny drone on its back and walked back home. And of coursed no US planes can spot that !!!
Now we know the true intent of the virus that the Air Force found in its drone system back in October. Don't let your employees surf for porn or play online social media games from Zynga. http://articles.cnn.com/2011-10-10/us/us_drone-program-virus_1_computer-virus-drones-uavs?_s=PM:US
There once was a time when I would have valued the word of my own country more than that of Iran.
This is damage control to save face. You don't "lose" a 20-metre long plane and nobody will believe that.
And it makes sense that if contact with it was lost by its controllers, it cruised around until it ran out of fuel - or perhaps in a gradual descent - until it crashed.
Not a surprise, considering that they also see no indication of global warming, the fall of their empire, the collapse of capitalism, the takeover of their government by Fascism. This is akin to a blind person declaring that they can't see in the dark.
that the evil US has not attacked the good lovely government of Holy Iran?
That's not surprising. They also see no indication that they lost in Iraq and Afghanistan or that their own population is rising against them. Why would they see indication of a tiny drone (one of many) shut down while spying over a sovereign nation, something they do on a daily basis around the world? Sheesh!
I believe it lacks some of the basic and more advanced stealth technology that the US would not want to fall into the wrong hands if it was shot down or experienced mechanical/software problems over enemy territory. If this story is really true, then it most likely also transmitted important Iranian radar signature information back to the US which they can use to plan for the real attack.
"The UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) to which the Iranians are referring MAY BE (???) a U.S. unarmed reconnaissance aircraft that had been flying a mission over western Afghanistan late last week. Are they hinting it might not be American? Or they still don't know? "The operators of the UAV lost control of the aircraft and had been working to determine its status." Oh sure, it is convenient to blame human error. OK but what about their inability to determine its status? In that case, how can the Americans/NATO can say it was not shot down? This US/NATO statement, in the face of the Iranian proclamation, is a PR disaster.
What matters is why it was in Iranian airspace? That's the more serious question for the UN and NATO to debate
will see tomorrow
I do not think Iran will reveal any pictures very soon they are working hard to unravel the secrets
In the recent past the Iranians claimed shooting down a couple of US drones. The US responded that no drone was missing. This time at least, a drone is missing. Perhaps it malfunctioned and went down. In any case, the RQ-170 drone does not have the advanced features of the B-2 Stealth Bomber. For example, it does not have sharp edges and some other concealment features. It was deployed over Afghanistan with the understanding that some specimens will fall into the wrong hands. This is not a devastating loss.
If the US denies it, it's definitely true. Denial is a river that runs deep thru Washington, DC
"NATO's U.S.-led mission in neighboring Afghanistan said however the Iranian report COULD REFER to an UNARMED U.S. SPY DRONE that WENT MISSING there LAST WEEK."..That says it all folks..So a drone went down and we're only hearing about it after Iran claimed they brought it down..Question, will the US have mentioned this downed drone if Iran hadn't made this claim?? The US can't even admit their drones are falling from the skies in Afghanistan..Deny, deny, deny!!!
How "convenient" that there was no whisper of this missing drone, until Iran announced they have it.