Iran’s IRGC says hit US sea drone in Hormuz Strait

Tehran: Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said that its naval forces had targeted a US unmanned surface vehicle (USV) in the Strait of Hormuz.

In a statement published on its official news outlet Sepah News, the IRGC said the Saildrone Explorer-type USV was on an “aggressive mission” and was struck at the strait’s entrance.

Saildrone Explorer USVs were previously used in the region by the US Fifth Fleet and Task Force 59 headquartered in Bahrain, the IRGC said, adding that the US naval base in Bahrain had been targeted in Iranian strikes and the USVs are now used by a unit based in Khasab in Oman, reports Xinhua news agency.

The IRGC repeated that the Strait of Hormuz is closed and under its control, warning that “any hostile presence in the strategic waterway will be targeted.”

The IRGC Navy said Tuesday that its forces had captured one of the US Army’s “most modern, smart” unmanned submarines, identified as a Dive-LD, at the entrance of the Strait of Hormuz. The US military later said one of its underwater drones “malfunctioned” during a survey of regional waters, without mentioning whether the device was seized by Iran.

Earlier, IRGC said on Wednesday that if any vessel enters the “restricted zone” to be announced by Iran in regional waters without coordination, it will be subject to the country’s sanction measures.

“If a vessel enters this zone without coordination (with Iran), it will be subject to our sanction measures; meaning that if it seeks to use the Strait of Hormuz in the future, it will not be able to do so, and we will also refuse to provide it with port, insurance, and other required services,” IRGC Spokesman Hossein Mohebbi said, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency.

He said the zone’s exact coordinates will be announced in the future, adding that it will generally begin around Iran’s southeastern port city of Chabahar and will include parts of the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea as well as the routes that can lead to the Strait of Hormuz.

He described the Strait of Hormuz as the “strait of Iran’s power”, adding that the country will use that power to respond to the “enemy’s aggression” and force it to stop it.

Also on Wednesday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the US Army’s “aggressive” attack the night before against a number of Iranian oil tankers.

IANS