Iranian media has reported that a drone shot down by U.S. forces in the Arabian Sea was on a “routine and legitimate mission on the high seas.” The Tasnim News Agency, which is connected to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), cited sources on Wednesday that claimed the drone was able to send reconnaissance images to a command center before contact was lost.
According to these sources, the drone was conducting “routine and lawful missions” focused on surveillance and imaging. On the other hand, the U.S. military shot down the Iranian drone after it approached the USS Abraham Lincoln in what was described as an aggressive manner, with unclear intentions, as previously stated by a CENTCOM spokesperson.
Captain Tim Hawkins noted that the USS Abraham Lincoln was about 800 miles from Iran when the Iranian Shahed-139 drone made an unnecessary maneuver toward the carrier. CENTCOM mentioned that Iranian drones had continued approaching the ship despite de-escalation efforts by U.S. forces. The situation escalated to the point that F-35C fighter jets from the Abraham Lincoln shot down the drone in self-defense.
Interestingly, despite this incident, there were no injuries reported among U.S. service members, and no U.S. military equipment was damaged. The Abraham Lincoln is currently heading to the Middle East, following President Trump’s announcement of a “massive armada” being dispatched toward Iran.
In another incident later, Captain Hawkins reported that Revolutionary Guard troops harassed a U.S.-flagged commercial vessel in the Strait of Hormuz, which was legally transiting international waters.
