A US surveillance drone, which Iranian officials described as “radar-evading,” took off from a base in the Afghan city of Kandahar and entered Iranian airspace briefly before being given a “serious warning” which quickly caused the drone to return to Afghanistan.
Details are still scant, and exactly what was claimed isn’t totally clear, as the initial reports in the Tasnim news agency suggested the drone got inside Iran itself, and not necessarily just into Iranian airspace, while later reports suggested they never quite got into Iran.
US officials have yet to comment at all on the incident, and indeed probably never well, since in general they don’t offer details about their drone flights. It would be unusual for a US drone in Afghanistan to head for Iran, however, as previously drones nearing Iranian airspace came by way of the Persian Gulf.
It also comes amid rising tensions along the Persian Gulf coast, with US officials twice complaining that Iranian speedboats got sort of close to their warships off the Iranian coast. Iran insists it was standard procedure for foreign warships off their coast. One of the US ships fired “warning shots” in the general direction of the boats.