Iran rejects claims that US warship shot down its drone

Iran on Friday rejected claims that one of its drones has been shot down by a U.S. warship in the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump said on Thursday the drone had flown to within 1,000 yards (914 metres) of the U.S. warship Boxer in a “provocative and hostile action” and had ignored several calls to stand down.

On Thursday, President Donald Trump said that the drone had flown to within 1000 yards of the USS Boxer, an amphibious assault ship and had ignored several calls to stand down.

The report was dismissed by Iran.

“The drone was immediately destroyed,” Trump said at a White House event, adding that the drone was “the latest of many provocative and hostile actions by Iran against vessels operating in international waters.”

However, Iran’s deputy foreign minister took to Twitter to deny that the drone belonged to Iran, even suggesting that it could have been a case of friendly fire.

Abbas Araghchi tweeted: “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 (unmanned aerial system) by mistake!”

Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency, quoted a Abolfazl Shekarchi, a senior armed forces spokesman who also said there were no missing drones or any reports of action by the USS Boxer.

“All drones belonging to Iran in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz ... returned safely to their bases after their mission of identification and control,”, Shekarchi said.

“And there is no report of any operational response by USS Boxer.”

Tensions between the U.S. and Iran have escalated in recent weeks. Trump accused Tehran of being behind two attacks on oil tankers in the Persian Gulf region, which Iran denied. Then on June 20, an Iranian missile shot down an unmanned American drone over the Strait of Hormuz that it claimed was above its territory.

The channel between the borders of Iran and Oman accounts for approximately 30% of the world’s seaborne oil traffic.