Iran press/ America: The US President Donald Trump says that he stopped attacks on 3 sites in Iran that could have killed 150 only 10 minutes before they started because he found the strikes an inappropriate response to downing a drone, according to Iran Press.
He further bragged about the effectiveness of the US sanctions on Iran, claiming that they are 'biting.'
While hours after the incident Trump had warned Iran in a tweet saying that it had made 'very big mistake' he played down his rhetoric later on Thursday by claiming that shooting down the drone may have been done 'unintentional' and as a result of a mistake.
His claims came despite the fact that Iran never said that downing the UAV had been a mistake but it said it was brought down because it had illegally crossed into Iranian airspace.
The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps IRGC had announced in a statement early Thursday that the US-made Global Hawk surveillance drone was brought down by its Air Force near the Kouh-e Mobarak region in the Central district of Jask after the aircraft violated Iran's airspace.
The RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aircraft system (UAS) can fly at high altitudes for more than 30 hours, gathering near-real-time, high-resolution imagery of large areas of land in all types of weather.
Meantime, a US official said a US Navy MQ-4C Triton high-altitude drone was shot down by Iranian surface-to-air missile.
IRGC issued a second statement on Thursday disclosing details about the shooting down of the US spy drone near the Strait of Hormuz, stressing that the unmanned aircraft was targeted after violating Iran's airspace over the Southern coasts.
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