Connect with us

News

Iran fired on US aircraft moments before tanker attack

This isn’t the first time that Iran has gone rogue in the region, and it certainly won’t be the last time that they target American assets either.

The blame game is continuing in the Middle East this week, after Iran again attempted to sink oil tankers in international waters off her coast.

Iran’s geographical position in the region has allowed them to wreak havoc on the oil industry, often for the attention of the global actors who have punished them for previously bad behavior.  They think, somehow, that their threats and actions will gain them some sort of upper hand in sanction negotiations – a tactic that certainly won’t play well with the Trump administration.

Now, however, a new bit of information regarding Tehran’s latest aggression in the region paints a much clearer picture of the threat they pose.

Iran fired a missile – but missed – at an American drone on Thursday after the supposed Iranian attack on oil tankers, while another U.S. drone was shot down by Iran-backed rebels in Yemen in recent days.

A senior U.S. official told Fox News that an MQ9 Reaper drone was fired on by the Iranians on Thursday shortly after it arrived at the scene where the MV Altair tanker sent out a distress signal amid the attacks the U.S. says were perpetrated by Iran.

So what exactly happened?

The official said the first distress call from the MV Altair tanker, a Marshall Islands-flagged but Norwegian-owned crude oil tanker, went out at 6:12am local time. The unmanned MQ9 Reaper drone arrived 8 minutes later.

Then at 6:45am local time, a missile was fired at the drone, but missed. The U.S. military said that it was a modified SA-7 fired from Iran’s mainland. It was fired on after the drone arrived on station to assist the Norwegian tanker.

This isn’t the first time that Iran has gone rogue in the region, and it certainly won’t be the last time that they target American assets either.

Become an insider!

Sign up for our free email newsletter, and we'll make sure to keep you in the loop.

Join the conversation!

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it, please mark it as spam. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.