Daijiworld Media Network - Tehran
Tehran, Sep 11: Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said its naval forces targeted a US unmanned surface vehicle (USV) in the Strait of Hormuz.
In a statement published by its official news outlet Sepah News, the IRGC said the Saildrone Explorer-type USV was on an “aggressive mission” and was struck at the entrance to the strategic waterway.
The IRGC said Saildrone Explorer USVs had previously been used in the region by the US Fifth Fleet and Task Force 59, both headquartered in Bahrain. It added that the US naval base in Bahrain had been targeted in Iranian strikes and that the USVs are now being operated by a unit based in Khasab, Oman, Xinhua news agency reported.
The IRGC reiterated 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 had on Tuesday said its forces captured one of the US Army's “most modern, smart” unmanned submarines, identified as a Dive-LD, at the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz.
The US military later said one of its underwater drones had “malfunctioned” while conducting a survey of regional waters, without confirming whether the device had been seized by Iran.
Earlier, the IRGC said on Wednesday that any vessel entering a “restricted zone” to be announced by Iran in regional waters without prior coordination would face Iranian sanctions.
“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 semi-official Tasnim news agency.
Mohebbi said the exact coordinates of the restricted zone would be announced later. He said the zone would generally begin around Iran's southeastern port city of Chabahar and cover parts of the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea, as well as routes leading towards the Strait of Hormuz.
Describing the Strait of Hormuz as the “strait of Iran's power”, Mohebbi said Tehran would use that power to respond to what it called “enemy aggression” and force it to stop.
Also on Wednesday, Iran's Foreign Ministry strongly condemned what it described as a US Army “aggressive” attack the previous night against several Iranian oil tankers.