Page 10 - ARUBA TODAY

A10 WORLD NEWS
Friday 21 June 2019
Iran shoots down US surveillance drone, heightening tensions

By NASSER KARIMI "In the last 24 hours, Iran has
JON GAMBRELL intensified its aggression
Associated Press against the United States
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's and against all of us," he
Revolutionary Guard shot said.
down a U.S. surveillance U.N. Secretary-General An-
drone Thursday in the Strait tonio Guterres expressed
of Hormuz, marking the first concern and urged all par-
time the Islamic Repub- ties to "avoid any action
lic directly attacked the that could inflame the situ-
American military amid ation," said U.N. spokesman
tensions over Tehran's un- Stephane Dujarric.
raveling nuclear deal with America stations some
world powers. RQ-4 Global Hawks at the
The two countries disputed Al-Dhafra Air Base in the
the circumstances leading UAE, near the capital of
up to an Iranian surface- Abu Dhabi. Associated
to-air missile bringing down Press journalists saw the
the U.S. Navy RQ-4A Global drones on the base's tar-
Hawk, an unmanned air- mac during a March 2016
craft with a wingspan larg- visit by then-Vice President
er than a Boeing 737 jetliner Joe Biden. The U.S. military
and costing over $100 mil- occasionally publishes im-
lion. ages from there of the
Iran said the drone "violat- drones, which have a dis-
ed" its territorial airspace, tinctive hump-shaped front
while the U.S. called the In this Oct. 24, 2018, photo released by the U.S. Air Force, members of the 7th Reconnaissance and an engine atop the fu-
missile fire "an unprovoked Squadron prepare to launch an RQ-4 Global Hawk at Naval Air Station Sigonella, Italy. selage.
attack" in international Associated Press Iran has claimed to have
airspace over the nar- shot down U.S. drones be-
row mouth of the Persian Islamic Revolution. up to 18 miles (30 kilome- The RQ-4 Global Hawk was fore. In the most famous
Gulf and President Donald "We do not have any in- ters) into the sky, the semi- at least 34 kilometers from incident, in December
Trump tweeted that "Iran tention for war with any official Fars news agency Iranian territory when it was 2011, Iran seized an RQ-170
made a very big mistake!" country, but we are fully reported. shot down by an Iranian Sentinel flown by the CIA
Trump later appeared to ready for war," Revolution- Iranian state TV later broad- surface-to-air missile, said to monitor Iranian nuclear
play down the incident, ary Guard commander cast video it described as Air Force Lt. Gen. Joseph sites after it entered Iranian
telling reporters in the Oval Gen. Hossein Salami said in the moment the Guard Guastella, commander of airspace from neighbor-
Office that he had a feel- a televised address. launched the surface-to-air the U.S. Central Command. ing Afghanistan. Iran later
ing that "a general or some- The paramilitary Guard, missile that struck the U.S. He said it was an attempt to reverse-engineered the
body" being "loose and which answers only to Su- drone. Chants of "God is disrupt U.S. efforts to moni- drone to create their own
stupid" made a mistake in preme Leader Ayatollah great!" could be heard as tor the Persian Gulf region. variants.
shooting down the drone. Ali Khamenei, said it shot a fireball appeared in the But Salami, speaking to a Elsewhere in the region
The incident immediately down the drone at 4:05 darkened sky. crowd in the western city Thursday, Saudi Arabia said
heightened the crisis al- a.m. Thursday when it en- Typically, militaries world- of Sanandaj, described the Yemen's Iranian-backed
ready gripping the wider tered Iranian airspace near wide call out to errant American drone as "violat- Houthi rebels fired a rock-
region, which is rooted in the Kouhmobarak district in aircraft entering their air- ing our national security et at a desalination plant
Trump withdrawing the U.S. southern Iran's Hormozgan space before firing. It's un- border." in al-Shuqaiq, a city in the
a year ago from Iran's 2015 province. Kouhmobarak is clear whether Iran gave "Borders are our red line," kingdom's Jizan province.
nuclear deal and imposing about 1,200 kilometers (750 any warning before open- the Revolutionary Guard The state-run Saudi Press
crippling new sanctions on miles) southeast of Tehran. ing fire. The U.S. military says general said. "Any enemy Agency quoted military
Tehran. Recently, Iran qua- The drone took off from the Iran fired on and missed that violates the borders spokesman Col. Turki al-
drupled its production of southern Persian Gulf and another drone last week will be annihilated." Maliki as saying it caused
low-enriched uranium to collected data from Ira- near the Strait of Hormuz, Iran's Foreign Ministry also no damage or casualties.
be on pace to break one nian territory, including the the narrow mouth of the said the drone entered Ira- The Yemeni rebel Al-Ma-
of the deal's terms by next southern port of Chahba- Persian Gulf through which nian airspace, and Foreign sirah satellite news chan-
week while threatening to har near Iran's border with 20% of all global oil moves. Minister Mohammad Javad nel earlier said the Houthis
raise enrichment closer to Pakistan, the Guard said in The U.S. has been worried Zarif tweeted it would take targeted a power plant in
weapons-grade levels on comments that appeared about international ship- its case to the U.N. He later Jizan, near the kingdom's
July 7 if Europe doesn't of- aimed at showing it could ping through the strategic tweeted that Iran retrieved border with Yemen, with a
fer it a new deal. track the aircraft. waterway since tankers parts of the drone in its ter- cruise missile.
Citing unspecified Iranian The U.S. military has not were damaged in May ritorial waters. A coalition led by Saudi
threats, the U.S. has sent commented on the mis- and June in what Washing- Russian President Vladimir Arabia, a key U.S. ally, has
an aircraft carrier to the sion of the remotely piloted ton has blamed on limpet Putin urged caution, warn- been battling the Houthis
Middle East and deployed aircraft that can fly higher mines from Iran, although ing any war between Iran since March 2015 in Ye-
additional troops along- than 10 miles in altitude Tehran denied involve- and the U.S. would be a men, the Arab world's poor-
side the tens of thousands and stay in the air for over ment.. On Wednesday in "catastrophe for the region est nation now pushed to
already there. All this has 24 hours at a time. the United Arab Emirates, as a minimum." the brink of famine by the
raised fears that a miscal- Iran used its air defense the U.S. Navy showed Israeli Prime Minister Benja- conflict. In recent weeks,
culation or further rise in system known as Third of fragments of mines that it min Netanyahu urged sup- the Houthis have launched
tensions could push the U.S. Khordad to shoot down said bore "a striking resem- port for U.S. efforts to halt a new campaign sending
and Iran into an open con- the drone — a truck-based blance" to those seen in what he called escalating missiles and bomb-laden
flict 40 years after Tehran's missile system that can fire Iran Iranian provocations. drones into Saudi Arabia.q