Iran: We Captured US Drone US: No, You Didn't

US says all ScanEagles 'fully accounted for' after Iranian report
By Polly Davis Doig,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 4, 2012 3:05 AM CST
Updated Dec 4, 2012 7:44 AM CST
Iran: We've Captured Another US Drone
A Scan Eagle drone launches from the flight deck of the amphibious assault ship USS Saipan.    (AP Photo/US Navy)

Iranian state TV is claiming that the country's Revolutionary Guard captured a US drone after it entered Iranian airspace over the Persian Gulf—a report the US moved quickly to squash, reports the AP, with a Navy spokesman saying that all US drones are "fully accounted for." The Iranian report quoted the Revolutionary Guard's navy chief as saying that the Iranian forces caught the "intruding" drone, and had the unmanned ScanEagle aircraft in its possession. The US official acknowledged that ScanEagles have been lost at sea in the past, but none recently; other Gulf nations, including the United Arab Emirates, fly ScanEagles in the region, notes the AP.

In 2011, Iran claimed it brought down a CIA spy drone after it entered Iranian airspace from its eastern borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan and last month, an Iranian aircraft fired on a US drone in international airspace over the Gulf. (More Scan Eagle stories.)

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