US jet shoots down Iranian drone approaching aircraft carrier
The United States military has shot down an Iranian drone that approached the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea.
The incident which occurred on Tuesday was disclosed by the US military, just as diplomats sought to arrange nuclear talks between Iran and the United States.
The US President Donald Trump had earlier warned that “bad things” could probably happen if a deal could not be reached, especially with US warships heading towards Iran.
The US military said the Iranian drone was flying towards the aircraft carrier “with unclear intent” and was shot down by a US fighter jet in self-defence.
According to Navy Captain Tim Hawkins, a spokesperson at the US military’s Central Command, “An F-35C fighter jet from Abraham Lincoln shot down the Iranian drone in self-defense and to protect the aircraft carrier and personnel on board”.
While the Iranian Tasnim news agency has said that for unknown reason, connection was lost with a drone in international waters, sources say that no American service members were harmed during the incident and no US equipment was damaged.
A violent crackdown by the Islamist regime of Iran was launched against anti-government demonstrations last month, the deadliest domestic unrest in Iran since the 1979 revolution.
The protests which initially centered around economic grievances, quickly evolved into a call for regime change.
The protests resulted in the arrest and death of thousands of Iranians according to human rights organizations, with the regime imposing widespread internet and telephone blackouts in order to conceal the government’s human rights violations against its citizens.
Trump had earlier warned that if the Iranian government continue to kill protesters, the US would hit Iran hard where it least expected.
The US President has in recent times demanded nuclear concessions from Tehran, saying last week that Iran was “seriously talking,” as negotiations were under way.
In a separate but similar incident on Tuesday in the Strait of Hormuz, just hours after the drone was shot down, forces of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had some altercations with a US-flagged merchant vessel, as they tried to board the ship. The vessel however sped up and continued its voyage, as the situation de-escalated in the process.
