Iran claimed Sunday that it brought down a stealthy American reconnaissance drone dubbed “The Beast of Kandahar” after taking control of the aircraft while it was flying over its territory near the Afghanistan border.
Iran’s semi-official news agency quoted government sources as saying the unmanned aerial vehicle — which they identified as an RQ-170 Sentinel — came down largely intact, though it offered no photos of the plane.
U.S. officials are not denying Iran has a downed UAV, and said one went missing a week ago.
“The UAV to which the Iranians are referring may be a U.S. unarmed reconnaissance aircraft that had been flying a mission over western Afghanistan late last week,” the International Security Assistance Forces press office said in a statement. “The operators of the UAV lost control of the aircraft and had been working to determine its status.”
