[h=3]Associated Press[/h]TEHRAN, Iran—A U.S. Navy spokesman said all U.S. drones are "fully accounted for" after Iran's state TV said Tuesday that the country's Revolutionary Guard captured an American drone after it entered Iranian airspace over the Persian Gulf.
Cmdr. Jason Salata, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, cast doubt on Iranian claims Tuesday that the U.S. ScanEagle drone entered Iranian airspace, saying U.S. operations in the Persian Gulf are "confined to internationally recognized water and airspace."
The U.S. Navy spokesman said no American drones are missing in the Middle East. He said that U.S. ScanEagles have been lost in the sea in the past, but none have gone down recently.
Other nations in the Gulf, including the United Arab Emirates, have ScanEagle drones in service.
The report on Iranian state television quoted the Revolutionary Guard's navy chief, Gen. Ali Fadavi, as saying that the Iranian forces caught the "intruding" drone.
Mr. Fadavi said the unmanned Scan Eagle aircraft was now in Iran's possession.
"The U.S. drone, which was conducting a reconnaissance flight and gathering data over the Persian Gulf in the past few days, was captured by the Guard's navy air defense unit as soon as it entered Iranian airspace," Mr. Fadavi said. "Such drones usually take off from large warships."
He didn't provide any further details or say when the incident happened.
Al-Alam, the state TV's Arabic-language channel, showed two Revolutionary Guard commanders examining what appeared to be an intact Scan Eagle drone. It wasn't immediately clear if that was the same drone Iran claimed to have captured.
In the footage, the two men then point to a huge map of the Persian Gulf in the background, showing the drone's alleged path of entry into Iranian airspace.
"We shall trample on the U.S.," was printed over the map, next to the Guard's coat-of-arms.
If true, the seizure of the drone would be the third reported incident involving Iran and U.S. drones in the past two years.
Last month, Iran claimed that a U.S. drone had violated its airspace. The Pentagon said the unmanned aircraft came under fire—at least twice but wasn't hit—and that the Predator was over international waters.
The Nov. 1 shooting in the Gulf was unprecedented, and further escalated tensions between the U.S. and Iran, which is under international sanctions over its nuclear program. Tehran denies it is pursuing a nuclear weapon and insists its program is for peaceful purposes only.
In 2011, Iran claimed it brought down a CIA spy drone after it entered Iranian airspace from Iran's eastern borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan. The RQ-170 Sentinel drone, which is equipped with stealth technology, was captured almost intact. Tehran later said it recovered data from the top-secret drone.
In the case of the Sentinel, after initially saying only that a drone had been lost near the Afghan-Iran border, American officials eventually confirmed the plane was monitoring Iran's military and nuclear facilities. Washington asked for it back but Iran refused, and instead released photos of Iranian officials studying the aircraft.
Cmdr. Jason Salata, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, cast doubt on Iranian claims Tuesday that the U.S. ScanEagle drone entered Iranian airspace, saying U.S. operations in the Persian Gulf are "confined to internationally recognized water and airspace."
The U.S. Navy spokesman said no American drones are missing in the Middle East. He said that U.S. ScanEagles have been lost in the sea in the past, but none have gone down recently.
Other nations in the Gulf, including the United Arab Emirates, have ScanEagle drones in service.
The report on Iranian state television quoted the Revolutionary Guard's navy chief, Gen. Ali Fadavi, as saying that the Iranian forces caught the "intruding" drone.
Mr. Fadavi said the unmanned Scan Eagle aircraft was now in Iran's possession.
"The U.S. drone, which was conducting a reconnaissance flight and gathering data over the Persian Gulf in the past few days, was captured by the Guard's navy air defense unit as soon as it entered Iranian airspace," Mr. Fadavi said. "Such drones usually take off from large warships."
He didn't provide any further details or say when the incident happened.
Al-Alam, the state TV's Arabic-language channel, showed two Revolutionary Guard commanders examining what appeared to be an intact Scan Eagle drone. It wasn't immediately clear if that was the same drone Iran claimed to have captured.
In the footage, the two men then point to a huge map of the Persian Gulf in the background, showing the drone's alleged path of entry into Iranian airspace.
"We shall trample on the U.S.," was printed over the map, next to the Guard's coat-of-arms.
If true, the seizure of the drone would be the third reported incident involving Iran and U.S. drones in the past two years.
Last month, Iran claimed that a U.S. drone had violated its airspace. The Pentagon said the unmanned aircraft came under fire—at least twice but wasn't hit—and that the Predator was over international waters.
The Nov. 1 shooting in the Gulf was unprecedented, and further escalated tensions between the U.S. and Iran, which is under international sanctions over its nuclear program. Tehran denies it is pursuing a nuclear weapon and insists its program is for peaceful purposes only.
In 2011, Iran claimed it brought down a CIA spy drone after it entered Iranian airspace from Iran's eastern borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan. The RQ-170 Sentinel drone, which is equipped with stealth technology, was captured almost intact. Tehran later said it recovered data from the top-secret drone.
In the case of the Sentinel, after initially saying only that a drone had been lost near the Afghan-Iran border, American officials eventually confirmed the plane was monitoring Iran's military and nuclear facilities. Washington asked for it back but Iran refused, and instead released photos of Iranian officials studying the aircraft.