Iran's 'Proof' That US Drone Was over Their Territory Outed as Complete Fraud
After Iran shot down a U.S. Navy high-altitude drone over the Persian Gulf region, the Iranian regime claimed it had taken such action because the drone was flying over its airspace.
But the regime’s supposed “proof” doesn’t hold up, and a new bombshell revelation about a photo Iran used to show where the drone was flying at the time of the attack all but destroys any shred of credibility for Iran’s argument.
The state-run Islamic Republic News Agency posted a photo of what it claimed was the RQ-4 Global Hawk drone falling from the sky:
But as The U.K. Sun pointed out, that same photo was used in a 2017 news report about an American drone over Yemen.
As The Sun noted, it’s still not clear whether Iran mistakenly used that photo or not. But given that regime’s recent history of provocation against the United States and its allies, it’s not a stretch to believe Iran is trying its best to poke a caged bear.
Since news of the drone attack broke, the U.S. government has repeatedly assured the world that the drone was flying over the Strait of Hormuz and not Iranian airspace.
U.S. Navy Captain Bill Urban, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, made it clear what that the U.S. government believes the incident was an “unprovoked attack on a U.S. surveillance asset.”
“U.S. Central Command can confirm that a U.S. Navy Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (or BAMS-D) ISR aircraft was shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile system while operating in international airspace over the Strait of Hormuz at approximately 11:35 p.m. GMT on June 19, 2019,” he said in a statement Thursday.
“Iranian reports that the aircraft was over Iran are false,” Urban added.
Top Iranian officials certainly didn’t try to hide the fact that they shot the drone down, even going as far as boasting — to some degree — on Iranian state television that the incident would send a “clear message” to the United States and serve as a deterrent to any other enemies.
“We warn enemies of any aggression at this stage and assure them that we can reach them wherever they are,” Major General Hossein Salami, commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, reportedly said.
The incident comes on the heels of escalated tensions between the two countries after the Pentagon said it was confident that the IRGC was responsible for the crippling attack on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman earlier this month, according to Bloomberg.
President Donald Trump weighed in Thursday after learning the American drone had been shot down, tweeting that Iran had “made a very big mistake.”
Iran made a very big mistake!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 20, 2019
Trump later told reporters he thinks the downing of the unmanned aircraft may have been a mistake perpetrated by a “loose and stupid” member of Iran’s military, The Hill reported.
“I have a feeling that it was a mistake made by somebody who shouldn’t have been doing something that they did,” Trump said.
“I find it hard to believe it was intentional, if you want to know the truth.”
The world will undoubtedly wait to see if Trump retaliates for the seemingly senseless attack on very expensive piece of military equipment.
But if we’ve learned anything from the commander in chief, it’s that he takes great pride in not revealing his military strategies ahead of time.
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