Numerous merchant ships belonging to Iran and other countries remain at anchor in the strait of Hormuz. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty ImagesNumerous merchant ships belonging to Iran and other countries remain at anchor in the strait of Hormuz. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty ImagesIran claims to have seized American drone US says had ‘malfunctioned’Centcom says ‘defective’ drone was surveilling regional waters and was not collecting sensitive data
Iranian forces claimed to have seized an American underwater drone in the strait of Hormuz that the US military said had “malfunctioned” more than a day earlier.
US Navy Capt Tim Hawkins, a United States Central Command spokesperson, said in a statement the drone was surveilling regional waters when it malfunctioned “more than a day ago”.
Hawkins said the submersible was “defective” and an older model “that neither collected sensitive data nor carried any classified sonar or radar equipment”.
Operations in area waters continue, he said.
Earlier on Tuesday, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed that its naval forces “captured one of the most modern, unmanned, and smart submarines of the US terrorist army at the entrance to the strait of Hormuz”, according to Iranian TV.
The statement described the capture as a “complex intelligence and operational action at dawn” and said: “This submarine has now been captured and images of it will be released in the coming hours.”
Iran has maintained a blockade of the strait of Hormuz, which normally carries about one fifth of the global oil and gas shipments, since the outbreak of the war more than six months ago, while the US has imposed its own blockade of Iranian ports.
After a month of relative calm in August, Iran and the US have resumed exchanges of fire, sending global oil prices back up to levels last seen in July.
Trump has struggled to end the unpopular war, which has claimed the lives of 18 US service members.
Iranian authorities have previously put the overall death toll from US and Israeli strikes in the thousands, figures that outside observers, including US-based monitoring groups, have broadly corroborated.
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