Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Tuesday that its Aerospace Force downed two American drones in the Strait of Hormuz. Electronic warfare systems were deployed against the MQM-170 aircraft to stop them from completing their missions.
The Tasnim news agency reported that this operation brings the total number of captured drones of this specific type to four. The report gave no other operational details about the interception.
This follows two similar announcements by Iranian authorities last week. The state-run IRNA news agency stated on Friday that an MQM-170 drone was brought down over Qeshm Island using electronic warfare.
The IRGC Navy claimed a day earlier that it seized control of another drone of the same model in the western area of the Strait of Hormuz, landing the aircraft intact.
The United States military rejected the Iranian account of Thursday’s incident. Washington has disputed several of these operational claims.
The announcement came during a period of indirect diplomatic contacts between Tehran and Washington. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei stated on Monday that both nations continued to exchange messages through mediators.
Baqaei confirmed that Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi travelled to Doha to help facilitate these diplomatic exchanges through Qatari mediation.
Military hostilities between the US, Israel and Iran began on February 28. Tehran retaliated by targeting Israel and US assets in the region before the parties reached a ceasefire agreement in April.
The US and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding regarding freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz on June 18 after the ceasefire. Implementation of the agreement stalled due to ongoing disagreements concerning regional security inside the waterway.
