Iran claims Guard drone spied on US warships

An Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps drone carried out a surveillance flight over an American aircraft carrier in the Gulf, the state-linked Tasnim news agency claimed yesterday.

A video by the agency, which was not been independently verified, shows a drone with the name Ababil III written on the wings in Farsi and Latin.

The drone is seen taking off from a desert base near the sea, and the soundtrack of an action film plays in the background as it flies over first an escort ship and then an aircraft carrier with fighter planes on the deck.

The vessel shown is purported to be the Dwight D Eisenhower, an American aircraft carrier stationed in the Arabian Gulf.

“The naval force of Sepah [the Guard’s Farsi name] is aware of all the movements of American terrorist forces in the region ... and closely monitors them,” Tasnim reported. The agency did not name the vessel nor say when the footage was shot.

The Tasnim report comes nearly three weeks after the US branded the Guard as a “foreign terrorist organisation” and added it to a blacklist.

Iran swiftly retaliated by declaring US troops terrorists.

The Guard is an ideological military force that works in parallel with the regular army.

Its naval arm is charged with the defence and security of the Gulf, including the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a global shipping route through which American forces routinely pass.

The video release comes not long after the Trump administration said it would no longer exempt countries from US sanctions if they continue to buy Iranian oil, stepping up pressure on Iran in a move that primarily affects the five remaining large importers: China and India and US allies Japan, South Korea and Turkey.

The move is part of a US “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran to eliminate its oil-export revenues, which the US says are used to destabilise the region.

Iran, meanwhile, reiterated its long-running threat to close the Strait of Hormuz if it is prevented from using the waterway, through which about a third of all oil transported by sea passes.