A medic testifying in the trial of Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher – who is accused of killing an injured ISIS prisoner of war in Iraq – shocked trial observers when he testified Thursday that he, not Gallagher, was responsible for the Islamic militant’s death.

Special Operator 1st Class Corey Scott, a SEAL Team Seven medic, revealed during cross-examination in the courtroom at Naval Base San Diego that he killed the fighter by asphyxiation. Scott testified that he saw Gallagher stab the fighter, but then he himself held his thumb over a breathing tube that had been inserted into the militant’s mouth.

“Did Chief Gallagher kill this terrorist?” Gallagher’s attorney Timothy Parlatore then asked Scott.

“No,” Scott replied.

COURT-MARTIAL BEGINS FOR NAVY SEAL ACCUSED OF WAR CRIMES 

The court recessed briefly after the stunning testimony from Scott, a prosecution witness who had been granted immunity. Fox News Correspondent Jonathan Hunt said he was in the hallway and spotted Gallagher and his wife Andrea hugging and laughing together, appearing to be relieved — even celebratory — after hearing what Scott had said.

“Why did you kill him?” Parlatore asked Scott during one point of the cross-examination.

“Because I knew he was going to die anyway,” Scott answered. “I wanted to save him from what was going to happen next to him.”

Gallagher, 40, previously pleaded not guilty to premeditated murder and aggravated assault charges stemming from the alleged killing and other alleged instances of firing sniper rounds at civilians in Iraq in 2017.

Scott also told the defense counsel that during his time serving overseas, he had witnessed the Iraqi Emergency Response Division “torture, rape and murder prisoners.”

“Is this why you asphyxiated him?” Parlatore asked. “Yes,” Scott replied.

PROSECUTOR, IN OPENING STATEMENT, SAYS GALLAGHER WAS ‘READY TO KILL

In other courtroom testimony that seemed straight out of a Hollywood movie, the Navy prosecutor opposite Parlatore raised his voice at Scott, charging that only now he was offering this testimony because he had immunity and he wanted to keep Gallagher out of jail. He accused Scott of never mentioning his role in the death during prosecution interviews that took place ahead of the trial.

“You never said that you covered the tube, did you?” asked Lt. Brian John, the prosecutor.

“You said he maintained vital signs until he stopped breathing,” he continued, reading off an interview transcript, accusing Scott of changing his story “only now, after you’ve been granted testimonial immunity.”

“You can lie about the fact that you killed the ISIS prisoner because you don’t want Chief Gallagher to go to jail,” Lt. John continued.

“I don’t want him to go to jail,” Scott shot back.

NAVY SEAL, IN GALLAGHER TRIAL, SAYS ‘I SAW HIM STAB THE PRISONER ON THE SIDE OF THE NECK’

The courtroom drama continued to unfold as Parlatore — a tall, imposing Navy veteran — stood facing the navy prosecutor seated inches from him, accusing prosecutors of stopping short of ever asking Scott what the cause of death was. The reason, Parlatore charged, was because they had one goal: the prosecution of Gallagher.

Gallagher was undergoing a medical screening at Camp Pendleton and was in the process of transitioning to a non-combat advisory role for the Navy SEALs when he was taken into custody in September 2018, his brother Sean has said. Gallagher had planned to retire in the spring.

Throughout his 19 years of service, Gallagher earned the Bronze Star with V for Valor twice, a Meritorious Unit commendation and a trio of Navy and Marine Corps Achievement medals, among other recognitions and decorations.

He fought in Iraq and Afghanistan several times, reaching the status of what Sean Gallagher described as a “modern-day war hero.”

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It was during Gallagher’s final combat deployment, in 2017, that he was alleged to have committed war crimes. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service launched an investigation into Gallagher in April 2018.

Investigators previously have alleged that, while a teen ISIS fighter was receiving medical treatment from SEAL medics, Gallagher walked up and stabbed him in his neck and side with a knife, killing the terrorist. Then, they said, he posed for photographs with the fighter’s body, holding his head in one hand and his blade in the other.

Fox News’ Jonathan Hunt contributed to this report.

U.S. military officials returned fire — verbally — hours after Iran blasted a Navy high-altitude drone out of the sky over the Strait of Hormuz, with U.S. Central Command leaders on Thursday slamming the “unprovoked” strike and Tehran’s subsequent “false” justifications for it.

The downing of the drone, via surface-to-air missile, is only the most recent Iranian provocation in the region, coming on the heels of a disputed attack on a pair of oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman last week. U.S. officials say Iran was behind the tanker attacks, however, the Islamic Republic has not claimed responsibility and even suggested American involvement in the plot.

Similarly, Iran claimed the U.S. drone on Thursday was over Iranian airspace when it was shot down — but American officials stated unequivocally the incident occurred in international airspace. U.S. Central Command said in a statement that a U.S. Navy Broad Area Maritime Surveillance ISR aircraft, known as a BAMS-D, was shot down at approximately 7:35 p.m. ET on Wednesday.

BIDEN CALLS IRAN TENSIONS ‘SELF-INFLICTED DISASTER’ AFTER US DRONE SHOOT-DOWN

In a statement read to reporters at the Pentagon Lt. Gen. Joseph Guastella, Commander, U.S. Air Forces Central Command said the drone was flying over the Gulf of Oman and the Strait of Hormuz on a surveillance mission in international airspace when it was shot down from the missile fired from a location near Goruk, Iran.

“This was an unprovoked attack on a U.S. surveillance asset that had not violated Iranian airspace at any time during its mission,” Guastella said. “This attack is an attempt to disrupt our ability to monitor the area following recent threats to international shipping and free flow of commerce.”

Guastella said at the time it was struck by the missile, the drone was operating at a “high-altitude” approximately 34 kilometers from the nearest point of land on the Iranian coast.

“This dangerous and escalatory attack was irresponsible and occurred in the vicinity of established air corridors between Dubai, UAE, and Muscat Oman, possibly endangering innocent civilians,” he said.

LINDSEY GRAHAM: IF IRAN ‘ATTACKS SHIPPING AGAIN,’ US SHOULD CONSIDER ‘TAKING OUT THEIR NAVY, OIL REFINERIES’

The U.S. Navy’s RQ-4A Global Hawk drone provides real-time intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions  “over vast ocean and coastal regions,” according to the military.

Iran also tried to shoot down another drone, but missed, U.S. officials told Fox News. Officials are now scrambling to find the wreckage in the water before Iranian forces recover it.

The Navy RQ-4A Global Hawk drone deployed to the Middle East in the past few days as part of reinforcements approved by President Trump last month.

The high-altitude drone can fly up to 60,000 feet or 11 miles in altitude and loiter for 30 hours at a time. It’s used to spy on Iranian military communications and track shipping in the busy waterways. Each drone costs up to $180 million dollars.

Besides the drone incident, U.S. officials told Fox News that Iranian-backed forces fired cruise missiles Wednesday night into Saudi Arabia, hitting a power plant. The spate of recent attacks come amid the backdrop of heightened tensions after the U.S. decision a year ago to withdraw from Tehran’s nuclear deal reimpose sanctions.

President Trump said on Twitter that Iran “made a very big mistake!” before telling reporters alongside Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau the U.S. would not stand for it.

At the same time, he seemed to leave open the possibility that it was not an intentional act.

“I find it hard to believe it was intentional, and it could have been someone who was loose and stupid,” he said.

A commander for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard claimed the drone was shot down over Iranian airspace to send a “clear message” to the U.S., and marked the first direct Iranian-claimed attack of the crisis.

“We do not have any intention for war with any country, but we are fully ready for war,” Revolutionary Guard commander Gen. Hossein Salami said in a televised address.

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which answers only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said it shot down the drone on Thursday morning — causing some confusion about the timeline of the incident — when it entered Iranian airspace near the Kouhmobarak district in southern Iran’s Hormozgan province. Kouhmobarak is some 750 miles southeast of Tehran and close to the Strait of Hormuz.

CAL THOMAS: IS WAR WITH IRAN INEVITABLE?

The Guard said it shot down the drone at 4:05 a.m. after it collected data from Iranian territory, including the southern port of Chahbahar near Iran’s border with Pakistan. Iran used its air defense system known as Third of Khordad to shoot down the drone — a truck-based missile system that can fire up to 18 miles into the sky, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.

The Guard described the drone as being launched from the southern Persian Gulf but did not elaborate. American RQ-4A Global Hawks are stationed at the Al-Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates, near the capital, Abu Dhabi.

Salami, speaking to a crowd in the western city of Sanandaj, described the American drone as “violating our national security border.”

“Borders are our red line,” Salami said. “Any enemy that violates the borders will be annihilated.”

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The U.S. said Iran fired a missile at another drone last week that responded to the attack on two oil tankers near the Gulf.

Another senior U.S. official told Fox News last week that an MQ9 Reaper drone was fired on by the Iranians shortly after it arrived at the scene where the MV Altair tanker sent out a distress signal.

After the tanker incident, Pompeo said his assessment was based on “intelligence, the weapons used, the level of expertise needed to execute the operation, recent similar Iranian attacks on shipping, and the fact that no proxy group operating in the area has the resources and proficiency to act with such a high degree of sophistication.”

Fox News’ Jennifer Griffin, Adam Shaw, Lukas Mikelionis and The Associated Press contributed to this report