Friday, June 21, 2019

IRAN'S SIDE OF THE STORY: Iranian General Says Iran Warned U.S. Drone Controllers Several Times Before Shootdown

Picture from The Tehran Times of alleged parts of shotdown drone recovered by Iran.

The other side of the story via The Tehran Times:


The IRGC brought the drone down by firing a surface-to-air missile at it.
Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the aerospace unit of the IRGC, said on Friday that the drone had received warnings for four times before being shot down.

“Those who guided the drone received the warnings but did not care. Given that the drone breached Iran’s airspace, the aerospace unit of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps shot it down,” Hajizadeh said in an exhibition held in Tehran to showcase the drone’s wreckage.
The IRGC released GPS coordinates that showed the drone eight miles off Iran’s coast, inside the 12 nautical miles from the shore that is Iran’s territorial waters.
“Two warnings were issued on 2:05 on Thursday morning and two others were issued on 3:55 and the drone was shot on 4:05. In fact, four warnings were given to this drone but they did not pay attention. Another spy plane was also flying near this drone which carried 35 crew members and we had the right to shoot that down, however, we shot down the unmanned drone,” the general explained.
Brian Hook, the U.S. point man for Iran, had already questioned Iran’s military capabilities. However, the Iranian military succeeded to bring down the RQ-4 Global Hawk drone with homegrown “Khordad 3” missile.
"Iran has photoshopped images of missile launches to try and show its increased missile capabilities. They've also photoshopped antiquated aircraft and tried to pass them off as new stealth fighter jets," Hook said on a video on June 8.
The IRGC published a video on Thursday night showing the exact moment the drone was hit and brought down.
"The American drone was intercepted, hit and destroyed by the Khordad 3 system at 04:05, today after it entered Iranian air territory," the IRGC said in a tweet.
U.S. drone took off from UAE
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Friday that the U.S. drone violated the Iranian airspace by flying from the United Arab Emirates and it was targeted near Kouh-e Mobarak.
"At 00:14 U.S. drone took off from the UAE in stealth mode and violated Iranian airspace,” Zarif wrote on his Twitter account. 
Zarif said, “It was targeted at 04:05 at the coordinates (25°59'43"N 57°02'25"E) near Kouh-e Mobarak.”
Zarif: Now U.S. is encroaching Iran’s territory
Also, Zarif warned that in addition to waging “economic terrorism” against Iran, the United States is now invading the Iranian territory.
“The U.S. wages economic terrorism on Iran, has conducted covert action against us and now encroaches on our territory,” Zarif tweeted. 
Zarif added, “We don't seek war, but will zealously defend our skies, land and waters.”
The United States has claimed that the drone was operating in international airspace over the Strait of Hormuz. 
Zarif refuted the claim, saying, “We'll take this new aggression to the UN and show that the U.S. is lying about international waters.”
The foreign minister said Iran has found parts of the downed drone in its territorial waters.
“We've retrieved sections of the U.S. military drone in OUR territorial waters where it was shot down,” Zarif explained.
The IRGC displayed parts of the downed drone on Friday noon, refuting earlier claims by the U.S. that the drone was flying over international waters.
$130 million surveillance drone
General Hajizadeh said the U.S. lost one of its most sophisticated and expensive spy aircrafts.
The Global Hawk drone, made by Northrop Grumman Corp, is used for intelligence-gathering over water and coastal areas, and costs around $130 million, according to industry experts. It can fly at high altitudes for more than 30 hours, gathering near-real-time, high-resolution imagery of large areas of land in all types of weather.
The IRGC announced on Thursday that the surveillance drone was shot down near the Kouh-e Mobarak region in the central district of Jask after the aircraft violated Iran’s airspace.
“The Global Hawk spy drone took off from one of the U.S. forces’ bases south of the Persian Gulf at 00:14 a.m. today and turned off all its Identification (Identification Friend or Foe) equipment and continued flight from the Strait of Hormuz to Chabahar port in a full stealth mode,” the statement said, according to Fars.
“The drone started collecting intelligence in a spying operation when it was returning towards the western parts of the region near the Strait of Hormuz and it violated the airspace over the Islamic Republic of Iran's territory,” it added.

1 comment:

  1. Personally I'd believe the Iranians way before I'd believe the US government.

    ReplyDelete