Blown out of the sky

Blown out of the sky: Iran, led by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, claims to have shot down western spy planes

Iran yesterday claimed it had shot down a number of Western spy planes that had violated its airspace.

Drones are mainly used by the U.S. in Iraq and Afghanistan. But Tehran said two of the aircraft had been intercepted in the Persian Gulf. It claimed ‘many’ others had been shot down over an unspecified period of time.

Iran is locked in a dispute with the U.S. and its allies over its disputed nuclear program, which the West believes aims to develop nuclear weapons. Iran denies the accusations and says it wants only to generate electricity.

The U.S. and Israel, Iran’s main foes, do not rule out military action if diplomacy fails to end the row.

The head of the Revolutionary Guard’s air force wing, General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, provided no proof of the drone attacks, and did not say which country they belonged to.

The U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, which is based in the Gulf, said it had had no reports of aircraft downed ‘recently’.

Hajizadeh said enemies – a term used by Iranian authorities for the U.S. and its allies – had been using the drones in Iraq and Afghanistan. ‘But there has been cases of violations of our airspace by their drones,’ the commander said.

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