Iran’s shootdown of a U.S. drone over international airspace early Thursday morning drastically increased tensions between the two countries, but it wasn’t the Islamic Republic’s first attack on American drones in recent years.
Iranian forces downed a CIA RQ-170 Sentinel stealth drone over Kashmar, a city in the country’s northeast, on Dec. 5, 2011. Western media outlets initially reported the drone had been shot down, but it was later discovered to have been recovered relatively intact. The Iranian government, hailing the capabilities of its cyber forces, claimed the drone had fallen victim to a cyberattack, though exactly how it was taken down remains unclear.
Iran took full advantage of the opportunity, parading what appeared to be the drone’s remains on state television. The incident embarrassed the Obama administration, which asked Iran to return the drone on Dec. 12. Iran categorically denied the request.
“The American espionage drone is now Iran’s property, and our country will decide what steps to take regarding it,” said then-Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi. “Instead of apologizing to the Iranian nation, it is brazenly asking for the drone back.”
Iran set out to reverse-engineer the advanced drone, with the Iran’s Revolutionary Guard claiming in April 2012 that it had pulled all the data and was in the midst of building a prototype. Six years later, Israel shot down an Iranian drone over its airspace bearing a striking resemblance to the RQ-170. Israel Defense Forces Brig. Gen. Tomer Bar reported the drone was advanced and appeared to mirror Western technology.
That was the most notable Iranian drone attack until this month. U.S. Central Command confirmed Sunday that Iranian-backed Houthi rebels shot down an MQ-9 Reaper drone over Yemen with a surface-to-air missile on June 6.
Ever since their revolution, Iran has provoked the United States. The very best opportunity to possibly correct that problem was squandered by Obama when the population showed their displeasure with the ongoing Islamic regime, but HE showed he preferred the radical Islamic regime supporting global terror to something more friendly to the world.
Once again, now it’s Trump’s responsibility to fix it. Instead of hoping he can, Democrats cheer on Iran. What kind of “American” votes for such people?
the idiot demorats will embrace islam with open arms and then be put to the sword-chopped off heads when they do not convert. if you want to continue to comment on isis and AlQaeda (which has been operating since the 6th century first read Raymond Ibrahim’s book entitled Sword and Seimiter
than explore is a seminal review on American Thinker o The Forgotten Armenian Genocide of 1019 AD. now flash forward to another article in American Thinker for June 14, when under pressure from CHAIR is lecture was canceled. oh. did I mention that the ex shit heard gov John kasich sits of the board of CHAIR.
Here is how seriously Democrat leaders regard possible military action against Iran.