Jun 21 2019

A Twitter account attributed to Iran’s Armed Forces published a video on Thursday night claiming that it was exclusive footage showing the exact moment when a U.S. drone was hit and brought down.

“The American drone was intercepted, hit and destroyed by the Khordad 3 [homegrown surface to air missile] system at 04:05, today after it entered Iranian air territory,” the tweet maintained.

However, U.S. President Donald Trump and military commanders say that the drone (MQ-4C Global Hawk) was hit over international waters. The Pentagon also denounced the “unprovoked attack,” claiming the navy drone was 34 kilometers (21 miles) from Iran when destroyed by a surface-to-air missile.

Furthermore, Pentagon published a map showing the flight path of the drone, which indicated it traveled outside of Iranian waters and included a photograph showing it was at the coordinates (25°57’42″N 56°50’22″E) when it was downed.

In its statements, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has introduced the downed drone as an RQ-4C Global Hawk, while the U.S. Centcom says the doomed drone was an MQ-4 C model.

In the latest tweet by the Iranian Armed Forces, the two terms RQ4 and MQ4C have been used side by side as if they were the same.

Earlier, the IRGC-run Fars news agency had published an animated video of the incident, claiming that the U.S. drone was traveling over the international waters, but it violated Iranian airspace on its way back to the base.

In the meantime, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif affirmed on Twitter that a U.S. military drone that was hit and destroyed by Tehran on Thursday had taken off from the United Arab Emirates.

“At 00:14 U.S. drone took off from UAE in stealth mode & violated Iranian airspace. It was targeted at 04:05 at the coordinates (25°59’43″N 57°02’25″E) near Kouh-e Mobarak. We’ve retrieved sections of the U.S. military drone in OUR territorial waters where it was shot down,” Mohammad Javad Zarif twitted.

Source » radiofarda

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