Iran Claims It Downed Two U.S. Drones Near Hormuz

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it intercepted a U.S. MQM-170 drone west of the Strait of Hormuz and separately downed a U.S.-made MQ-1 drone east of the waterway. The claims have not been independently confirmed, and U.S. Central Command rejected the IRGC’s account of the MQM-170. The IRGC said its electronic warfare unit took control of the MQM-170’s guidance and control systems and brought it down nearly intact. It described the aircraft as conducting reconnaissance to gather information about Iranian air defenses along the Persian Gulf coast and the Strait of Hormuz. The IRGC also said specialists recovered data from the drone and determined it had taken off from the coast of a country on the southern side of the Persian Gulf, without identifying the country. CENTCOM spokesman Tim Hawkins disputed that account. He described the MQM-170 as a recoverable aerial target drone used by the U.S. Army and Navy for air-defense training, and accused the IRGC of repeatedly lying. His response addressed the MQM-170 claim, not the separately reported MQ-1 incident. The IRGC said its air defenses shot down the MQ-1 east of the Strait of Hormuz, opposite the coastal...