Iranian MPs to honor navy for U.S. drone

TEHRAN, Dec. 4 (UPI) -- The Iranian Parliament said Tuesday it summoned military commanders to be recognized for capturing what Tehran said was a U.S. drone.

Iranian naval commander Rear Adm. Ali Fadavi announced Tuesday his forces were able to "hunt down" a U.S. ScanEagle drone that was said to have violated Iranian airspace.

The Parliament said it was calling naval commanders to appear for recognition of the act. Ebrahim Aqa Mohammadi, a member of Iran's national security commission, told the semiofficial Fars News Agency that the action against the drone "demonstrated Iran's deterrent power to the world once again."

After the Iran in report of allegedly capturing a drone, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Navy's Central Command said Tuesday all UAVs were accounted for in the region.

"Our operations in the (Persian) Gulf are confined to internationally recognized water and airspace," she said in a statement.

Iran last month said it fired on "an unidentified plane" near its airspace the week before U.S. presidential elections. The plane in question was said to be an unmanned U.S. Predator drone. U.S. authorities said the aircraft was in international airspace.

Last year, the Iranian military said it retrieved an RQ-170 drone that had been flying under the authority of the CIA. It was reported that a remote U.S. pilot lost control of the vehicle near the Afghan border.