A US military commander said a Navy ship may have downed a second Iranian drone last week in the Strait of Hormuz.
”As always it was a complex tactical picture, we believe two drones. We believe two drones were successfully — there may have been more that we are not aware of — those are the two that we engaged successfully,” Marine Corps Gen. Kenneth McKenzie told CBS News on Tuesday.
Speaking aboard the USS Boxer, the ship that targeted the drones, McKenzie said they are “confident we brought down one drone, we may have brought down a second.”
CBS said the incidents took place about an hour apart after the Navy believed the two aircraft were flying too close to the ship.
The USS Boxer was monitoring Iranian boats and helicopters in the region.
Iran claimed the US brought down its own drone, a notion that President Trump dismissed by saying during a White House event Monday that the US used “new technology that’s actually quite amazing.”
The development comes as Iran seized a British-flagged oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz last Saturday and after Trump called off a military strike against Iran last month for shooting down an unmanned US surveillance drone.
Tensions are running high in the region as Tehran is trying to enlist European countries to help it ease sanctions Trump imposed after pulling the US out of an Obama-era nuclear deal last year.
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