(NBC) – President Donald Trump said Thursday that a U.S. Navy ship shot down an Iranian drone in a defensive action, escalating already high tensions in the Gulf region.
President Trump said the U.S.S. Boxer, an amphibious assault ship, fired on the drone in the Strait of Hormuz Thursday, destroying the aircraft.
The Boxer is part of a group of navy ships that was in the strait, located between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, as part of an increased U.S. military presence in the region.
The incident came four weeks after Iran shot down a U.S. surveillance drone flying over international airspace the same area in what government officials at the time called an “unprovoked attack.”
President Trump told reporters the Boxer took defensive action against an Iranian drone, which had closed into a near distance, approximately 1000 yards, ignoring multiple calls to stand down threatening safety of the ship and its crew.
He added that Iran’s drone “was immediately destroyed.”
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