Washington DC, July 19: The United States claimed on Friday its navy warship has “destroyed” an Iranian drone in Hormuz strait after it attempted to threaten the ship but, Tehran said it had no details about losing one of its drones.
At the White House, in remarks on Thursday, US President Donald Trump stated the Iranian drone was intercepted when flown within the 1,000 metres of the USS Boxer and when it ignored “multiple calls to stand down”, according to Al-Jazeera news reports.
“This is the latest of many provocative and hostile actions by Iran against vessels operating in international waters. The US reserves the right to defend our personnel, facilities and interests,” Trump said.
He further said “the drone was immediately destroyed” by an American navy warship in the Strait of Hormuz.
In a twitter post on Friday, the Iranian deputy foreign minister rejected all US claims, saying, “We have not lost any drone in the Strait of Hormuz nor anywhere else. I am worried that USS Boxer has shot down their own UAS by mistake!”
A few hours later, Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif stated he had “no information about losing a drone”.
In an official statement, the Pentagon said the USS Boxer, an assault warship, had taken defensive action against an Iranian drone on Thursday at around 10 am local time (7:00 GMT) in foreign waters while the vessel was transiting the Hormuz strait to enter the Gulf.
“We do assess it was an Iranian drone,” said Rebecca Rebarich, a Pentagon spokesperson.
“We live in a very dangerous environment,” Zarif said. “The US has pushed itself and the rest of the world into probably the brink of an abyss.”