US forces shot down an Iranian drone after it approached a US Navy aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea, and later responded to a separate incident involving a US-flagged merchant vessel in the Strait of Hormuz, US Central Command said on Tuesday.
“Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces harassed a US-flagged, US-crewed merchant vessel lawfully transiting the Strait of Hormuz,” CENTCOM spokesman Tim Hawkins said.
Hawkins said US forces earlier downed an Iranian Shahed-139 drone after it flew aggressively toward the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in international waters about 500 miles from Iran’s southern coast.
“An F-35C fighter jet from Abraham Lincoln shot down the Iranian drone in self-defense and to protect the aircraft carrier and personnel on board,” Hawkins said, adding that no US service members were harmed and no US equipment was damaged.
He added that two IRGC boats and an Iranian Mohajer drone later approached the tanker M/V Stena Imperative at high speed and threatened to board it, prompting the guided-missile destroyer USS McFaul to escort the vessel with defensive air support until the situation de-escalated.
