The US Navy took down an Iranian drone on July 18, after it refused to back down, as President Donald Trump informed. Namely, the USS Boxer destroyed the drone over the Strait of Hormuz, after the drone approached the ship within 1,000 yards (914m).
Speaking at the White House, Trump said that the US Navy took defensive action against an Iranian drone which had closed in a near distance, while also ‘ignoring multiple calls to stand down and was threatening the safety of the ship and the ship’s crew.’
In addition, a defence department official quoted by the New York Times mentioned that the drone was brought down using electronic jamming equipment.
However, Iran stated that it does know about losing a drone. In fact, BBC reports that Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi suggested the US may have downed its own drone by mistake.
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Earlier, Iranian forces had reportedly shot down a US military surveillance drone while flying over the Strait of Hormuz.
While Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) claimed the aircraft had violated Iranian airspace, the US military insisted the drone had been over international waters at the time.
In this regard, the US condemned the action which it characterized as an “unprovoked attack”. IRGC noted the incident sent a “clear message to America”.
“Iran made a very big mistake!”, President Trump said in a Tweet.
In addition, diplomatic tensions in the Strait of Hormuz seem to be growing after Iran announced it has seized a foreign tanker it said was smuggling fuel in the Gulf. This could be seen as a retaliation to the seizure of the Iranian tanker Grace 1 by Royal Marines off Gibraltar earlier this month.
These incidents come in light of two different cases of attacks against tankers in the Persian Gulf in May and June.
