Tehran (CNN) — Iranian TV aired images Thursday of what it says is a U.S. stealth drone that went down in Iran last week, an apparently intact RQ-170 drone propped on a pedestal and triumphantly displayed.
“Military experts are well aware how precious the technological information of this drone is,” said Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Aerospace Forces, according to the semi-official Fars News Agency.
There was disagreement among Pentagon officials about whether the drone in the video is real. Military and intelligence officials were analyzing the Iran television footage.
One U.S. official said right now the U.S. can’t be certain it’s the real stealth drone, because U.S. personnel don’t have access to it. But he added there’s no reason to think it’s a fake.
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However, a second senior U.S. military official said that a big question is to how the drone could have remained virtually intact given the high altitude it is believed to have crashed from.
Earlier Thursday, a Pentagon spokesman said the video is being examined.
“We’ve seen the imagery. There are folks that are looking at it,” Capt. John Kirby told a news conference.
He and his fellow spokesman, George Little, would not comment further on whether the drone is the one that the U.S. military said went missing. They did say t… >>>
