Iran demolishes an American drone near the Strait of Hormuz

The Iranian Revolution Guardians have announced this morning the demolition of a US unmanned observation aircraft. According to the Iranian agency Fars, citing this paramilitary body, the "spy" device fell, by action of its Air Force, after " violating Iranian airspace " in the southern province of Hormozgan, district of Yask. This is, near the place where the ship incident occurred last week.

For its part, the US Navy has confirmed the demolition of a device, an MQ-4C Triton drone, by an Iranian ground-air missile, while flying through international air space over the narrow critic of Hormuz.

The event, which adds to the escalation of tension that Iran and the US maintain in that critical area of   the world, occurs just a week after the attack on two oil tankers , during which, according to Washington, Iranian forces had tried to hit another of their drones with a projectile.

Thus, the main divergence between the versions at this time is where the drone was at the time of its demolition. It is not a trivial matter since Tehran alleges that it acted in response to an aggression and Washington has assured that the attack against its drone occurred "without provocation". In any case, the drone acted near the water tongue where 20% of the world's oil circulates, so that any incident in its vicinity has an impact on the price of crude oil.

The commander-in-chief of the Revolutionary Guard, Husein Salami, has said that the demolition of the drone is a "clear and firm" message. "Our borders are our red line, we are not looking for a war with any country, but we are prepared for war," he added, according to local media. The red line that has marked the US in recent days, in which projectiles allegedly pro-Iran militias have fallen on Iraqi bases where there were US soldiers, is a drop in their ranks.

Although this latest demolition fits in the current dispute between the two countries, whose loss of control is feared, it is not the first time something like this has happened. In December 2011, Iranian forces announced the capture of an RQ-170 drone in the northeast of the country through a sophisticated cyber attack, which allowed them to control the aircraft and land it unharmed. Thanks to this, using reverse engineering, Iran was able to subsequently manufacture a drone with similar characteristics. Two years later, the Iranian Navy said it had managed to "hunt" two more unmanned US naval vessels. The Pentagon has been parco when pronouncing with respect to this type of actions, widely celebrated in Iran like victories of its defense industry.