Iran warned off spy plane near Iranian war games in the Gulf - report

Reuters
Updated ·1 min read
1

DUBAI (Reuters) -Iran's military launched a drone to warn off a reconnaissance plane trying to approach Iranian war games on the Gulf coast, the semi-official Fars news agency said on Saturday.

The report did not specify the nationality of the reconnaissance aircraft, but Iranian forces have had repeated similar confrontations with U.S. forces in the Gulf.

The U.S. State Department referred questions to the Pentagon, which declined to comment.

Iran launched annual joint naval, air, and ground exercises in the Gulf on Friday near the strategic Strait of Hormuz waterway.

"During the exercises, a P-8 manned intelligence aircraft belonging to extra-regional forces, which had tried to reduce altitude to collect more accurate information from the exercise area, was forced to leave the area by the firing of a Karrar drone by (Iran's) air defence," Fars said.

(Reporting by Dubai newsroom; additional reporting by Timothy Gardner and David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Daniel Wallis)