TEHRAN, April 22 (UPI) -- Iranian officials boasted Sunday they had decoded the information stored aboard a U.S. surveillance drone they claimed to have brought down late last year.
The commander of the air arm of the Revolutionary Guards told the official FARS News Agency that the data it had compiled revealed the RQ-170 had actually flown over Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan two weeks before it crashed in Iran.
"Had we not accessed the plane's softwares and hard discs, we wouldn't have been able to achieve these facts," said Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh.
FARS said Iran had determined that the drone suffered a mechanical problem and was fielding inquiries about the RQ-170's systems from China and Russia.
The U.S. response to the loss of the drone has been low key. CNN said Washington requested its return while intelligence officials have downplayed the level of the technical data the Iranians would be able to acquire.
