Iran said Friday its navy seized two American sea drones in the Red Sea before letting them go, the latest maritime incident involving the US Navy's new drone fleet in the Mideast.
Cmdr Timothy Hawkins, a spokesman for the Navy's Mideast-based 5th Fleet, acknowledged the incident on Friday to The Associated Press but declined to immediately elaborate.
Iranian state television aired footage it said came from the deck of the Iranian navy's Jamaran destroyer, where lifejacket-wearing sailors examined what appeared to be two Saildrone Explorers. They tossed one overboard as another warship could be seen in the distance.
State TV said the Iranian navy found “several unmanned spying vessels abandoned in the international maritime routes” on Thursday.
“After two warnings to an American destroyer to prevent possible incidents, Jamaran seized the two vessels,” state TV said. "After securing the international shipping waterway, the Naval Squadron No. 84 released the vessels in a safe area.”
This marks the second such incident in recent days as negotiations over Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers hang in the balance. The earlier incident involved Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, not its regular navy, and occurred in the Persian Gulf.