US claims from Thursday that the USS Boxer shot down an Iranian drone in
the Strait of Hormuz are facing growing doubts on Friday, as Iranian
state media has released a video which shows what they say is the putative drone leaving the area unharmed.
Iran had already said that the claim of a drone having being shot down
was false, and a top military spokesman confirmed that all of Iran’s drones were accounted for, and not destroyed.
Iran’s since-released video shows a surveillance drone flying around
near the USS Boxer, tracking it through the Strait of Hormuz on
Thursday. The drone follows the ship through the entire trip through the
Strait, and returns to base without being attacked at all.
Iranian Foreign Ministry officials even jokingly suggested that the
explanation for all of this could be that the USS Boxer had shot and
destroyed its own ship-board drone by mistake.
The USS Boxer isn’t usually shipped out with drones at any rate, and US officials didn’t address this. President Trump, however, said he has “no doubt” that the Iranian drone was shot down, despite the video clearly showing it not shot down.
It was fake news from the Trump administration to try and placate the War Party for Trump’s having called off the bombing of Iran. This was Trump’s way of trying to save face with them and make out that we gave as good as we got.
Again, all this “tit-for-tat” is a waste of everyone’s time. Iran should be preparing for war and securing as much of its civilian infrastructure as it can, because war is now inevitable.
In fairness to the USN there are probably lots of drones from lots of operators flying around. In sympathy with the Iranians, how do you prove a negative? Can the USN dredge up some of the wreckage with “Made in Iran ” all over it?
So far in the drone wars it looks like the Iranians are first to tell the truth. I don’t like the regime but no need to call them liars (when they aren’t)
Yup, unfortunately, the US regime has lied so many times, they can’t be believed even if they might be true. Did it to themselves….
Of course, the important question, whether there is a shoot down or not, what is the USN even doing there to be in this position ?