Iran’s IRGC claims downing of US F-16, MQ-9 drone in southern airspace

Tehran: Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed its air defence has struck a US F-16 Fighting Falcon and an MQ-9 Reaper drone in the country’s southern airspace.

Making the announcement in a statement on its official news outlet Sepah News, the IRGC said the US fighter jet and drone were hit during joint retaliatory missile and drone operations by its Navy and Aerospace Division against heavy industries belonging to the United States and Israel, Xinhua news agency reported.

It added that the US Central Command (CENTCOM) has also confessed that its F-16 Fighting Falcon was targeted.

In a post on social media platform X, CENTCOM said, “A US Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon lands at a base in the Middle East after a combat flight in support of Operation Epic Fury.”

Additionally, IRGC said on Saturday that it destroyed a Ukrainian anti-drone equipment depot in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, used to assist US forces.

Ebrahim Zolfaghari, spokesman for Iran’s main military command Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, said that a warehouse in Dubai containing Ukrainian anti-drone systems and housing 21 Ukrainians had been targeted and destroyed in a joint operation by the IRGC’s Air Force and Navy.

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhiy Tykhyi denied the information as “a lie,” the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported on Saturday.

“This information does not correspond to reality. It is fake,” Interfax-Ukraine also quoted a spokesperson for Rustem Umerov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, as saying.

The development came amid heightened tensions following joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran starting on February 28, to which Iran and its regional allies responded with attacks on Israeli and US interests across the Middle East.

IANS