LONDON - Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they had conducted
tests aimed at bringing down a "hypothetical" foreign surveillance drone during
a military exercise, the official Fars news agency said on Saturday.
The
Islamic Republic News Agency, another official news agency, also reported the
exercise, but omitted the word hypothetical giving the impression that a real
drone had been downed.
Other official Iranian media outlets later
referred to the downing of a "hypothetical" aircraft.
In the past, there
have been incidents of Iran claiming to have seized US drones.
In early
January Iranian media said Iran had captured two miniature US-made
surveillance drones over the past 17 months.
Several drone incidents over
the past year or so have highlighted tension in the Gulf as Iran and the United
States flex their military capabilities in a standoff over Iran's disputed
nuclear program.
Iran said in January that lightweight RQ11 Raven
drones were brought down by Iranian air defense units in separate incidents in
August 2011 and November 2012.