Tehran
claims capture of US spy drone in Iranian airspace
Tehran
has claimed it captured an American spy drone after the aircraft
entered its airspace, Iran’s Press TV reports. The US Navy and the
White House denied the claim, saying that none of Washington's drones
in the Gulf region were lost.
RT,
4
December, 2012
When answering a journalist’s question about the drone, White House spokesman Jay Carney said “we have no evidence that the Iranian claims you cite are true.”
“All our active
unmanned aerial vehicles working here have been accounted for,”
US 5th Fleet spokesman Commander Jason Salata said earlier.
However, Iranian media
even showed the video footage of the ScanEagle, claiming it was that
very flying object Iran captured.
It is not the first
time that US drones have been brought down in Iran. Tehran earlier
reported about at least dozens instances of American spy drones shut
down since the US invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.
“The drone may
be an unharmed surveillance aircraft, but according to international
law, violation of a sovereign state air space constitutes an act of
war and can be referred to the UN Security Council,” Press
TV earlier reported.
The drone was
identified as a US-made ScanEagle that was allegedly gathering
intelligence on Iran, which was detected after flying over the
Persian Gulf for the past two days.
The Islamic Revolution
Guard Corps Navy captured the drone after the aircraft violated
Iranian airspace, naval chief Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi said.
"Such drones
are usually sent [on a] mission from large warships," Fadavi
told Fars news agency.
The ScanEagle is
manufactured by Boeing, and is four feet long with a 10-foot
(3-meter) wingspan.
ScanEagle:
- small, low-cost and
long-endurance drone
- can deploy outside
of airfield
- equipped with
electro-optical or infrared camera
- able to track both
stationary and moving targets, provide real-time intelligence
- capable of flying
above 4800 meters
- product of a
partnership between Boeing and Insitu
- currently used by
US Navy, US Marine Corps, Canadian Forces and Australian Defence
Forces
The US has reportedly
increased
its number of spy drone missions into Iran over the past two
months on concerns over Iran’s alleged pursuit of nuclear weapons,
the Wall Street Journal said.
The US has stepped up
its use of state-of-the-art unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) capable of
recording multiple media formats from thousands of feet in the air.
In a November 19
letter sent from Tehran and made available to the Journal, Iranian
leaders appealed
to the United Nations to complain about Washington’s drone
spying.
Amid these concerns, a
US drone was detected near the Iranian city of Bushehr, and was
tailed by Iranian fighter jets who attempted to shoot down the
aircraft.
And 11 months earlier,
a spy drone operated by the US was intercepted
mid-flight by Iran and grounded. Iranian engineers then allegedly
dismantled and reverse-engineered the UAV.
Iran later said that
the drone was top-secret and equipped with
stealth technology, and that Tehran had begun building its own
version.
The US originally
denied
they lost a drone over Iran before changing their story and
insisting that they lost contact with the craft during a surveillance
mission over neighboring Afghanistan.
University of Tehran
professor Seyed Mohammad Marandi told RT that Iran will profit from
drones by using them against potential enemies.
“The Iranians
will be using the technology to develop more advanced drones of
theirs where they can use to survey or carry out surveillance
operations over Palestine as well as over areas in the Persian Gulf,”
he said.
Marandi claimed the
captured drone had violated international law, and that such actions
will make Iran more aggressive against the US.
“What is
significant is that this highs tension, because this forces Iran to
behave more aggressively towards the United States and its allies
because it sees such actions as a potential threat,” Marandi
said.
Screenshot fron Press TV video
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