{"id":190226,"date":"2019-06-20T16:39:49","date_gmt":"2019-06-20T16:39:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=190226"},"modified":"2019-06-22T06:03:39","modified_gmt":"2019-06-22T06:03:39","slug":"irans-irgc-force-shoots-down-intruding-us-spy-drone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=190226","title":{"rendered":"Iran\u2019s IRGC force shoots down intruding US spy drone"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\">Press TV \u2013 June 21, 2019<\/h1>\n<div id=\"attachment_190228\" style=\"width: 550px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Global-Hawk-Block-40.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-190228\" class=\"wp-image-190228\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Global-Hawk-Block-40.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"540\" height=\"283\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Global-Hawk-Block-40.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Global-Hawk-Block-40-300x157.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 540px) 100vw, 540px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-190228\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Global Hawk drone. click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"><strong>Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has shot down an intruding American spy drone in the country\u2019s southern coastal province of Hormozgan.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">In a statement issued early Thursday, the IRGC said the US-made Global Hawk surveillance drone was brought down by its Air Force near the Kouh-e Mobarak region \u2014 which sits in the central district of Jask County \u2014 after the aircraft violated Iranian airspace.<\/span><\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: 0;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/embed?pb=!1m14!1m8!1m3!1d1838424.7532410377!2d57.336726!3d25.847307!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!3m3!1m2!1s0x3ef3c26be417677d%3A0xebdfe806e00a064d!2sKooh+Mobarak%2C+Hormozgan+Province%2C+Iran!5e0!3m2!1sen!2sus!4v1561047938847!5m2!1sen!2sus\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">According to the statement, the Global Hawk had flown from one of the American bases in the southern parts of the Persian Gulf region at 00:14 a.m. local time, with its identification transponders off in breach of all international aviation rules.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">It also went on to say that the drone had stealthily continued on the route from the Strait of Hormuz towards Iran\u2019s port city of Chabahar.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">While returning towards west of the Strait of Hormuz, the drone violated Iran\u2019s territorial airspace and began gathering intelligence and spying, the statement said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The drone had been targeted and shot down by the IRGC at 04: 05 a.m. local time, it added.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">An informed IRGC source in Hormozgan province said the drone had been targeted near the Kouh-e Mobarak region and fell down in the area of Ras al-Shir in Iran\u2019s territorial waters.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">He told the IRNA news agency that the downing came after repeated violations of Iran\u2019s airspace by US reconnaissance drones in the Persian Gulf region<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Reacting to the news, the US military claimed it did not fly over Iranian airspace on Wednesday.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">\u201cNo US aircraft were operating in Iranian airspace today,\u201d said Navy Captain Bill Urban, a spokesman for the American military\u2019s Central Command.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">However, a US official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to the Associated Press, confirmed on Thursday that an American military drone had been shot down in \u201cinternational airspace\u201d over the Strait of Hormuz by an Iranian surface-to-air missile.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">He identified the drone as\u00a0a US Navy MQ-4C Triton, which\u00a0builds on elements of the\u00a0RQ-4 Global Hawk with minor changes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aircraft system (UAS) can fly at high altitudes for more than 30 hours, gathering near-real-time, high-resolution imagery of large areas of land in all types of weather, maker Northrop Grumman says on its website.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton is a maritime derivative of the RQ-4B Global Hawk and the airborne element of the US Navy\u2019s Broad Area Maritime Surveillance Unmanned Aircraft System (BAMS UAS).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Hours after the incident, the U.S. military confirmed that one of its drones had been shot, claiming that the incident took place in international airspace.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Navy Captain Bill Urban, a spokesman for the US military&#8217;s Central Command, also alleged that it was &#8221; an unprovoked attack.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Tensions have been running between Iran and the US in recent weeks, with Washington stepping up its provocative military moves\u00a0in the Middle East.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Last month, Washington dispatched an aircraft carrier strike group, a bomber task force, and an amphibious assault ship to the Persian Gulf, citing an alleged Iranian threat.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">On Monday, the Pentagon announced that the US will send 1,000 additional US forces and more military resources to the Middle East.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Tehran believes the US has a hand in\u00a0a set of <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #ccffff; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.presstv.com\/Detail\/2019\/06\/13\/598416\/Iran-oil-tanker-attack-Sea-of-Oman-Zarif-suspicious-Abe-visit-United-States\">suspicious<\/a><\/strong><\/span> regional incidents in recent weeks, such as the June 13 attacks against oil tankers in the Sea of Oman, in a bid to pin the blame on Iran and put more pressure on the country.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Last week, UN sources<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong> <a style=\"color: #ccffff; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.presstv.com\/Detail\/2019\/06\/18\/598830\/tactical-assault-Iran-US-Maariv-oil-tanker-Oman\">revealed <\/a><\/strong><\/span>that the United States was planning to carry out a \u201ctactical assault\u201d on an Iranian nuclear facility in response to the alleged Iranian role in the tanker attacks<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.presstv.com\/Detail\/2019\/06\/20\/598942\/Iran-IRGC-US-spy-drone\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Iranian Revolutionary Guards shoot down a U.S. Global Hawk drone after it allegedly violates Iranian airspace  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-190226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Iran"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=190226"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":190229,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190226\/revisions\/190229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=190226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=190226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=190226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}