Senior Military Official Confirms Shooting Down of Israeli, US, British
Drones
News number: 8910271373 16:45 | 2011-01-17
http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=8910271373

Senior Military Official Confirms Shooting Down of Israeli, US, British
Drones

TEHRAN (FNA)- A senior Iranian military official on Monday confirmed reports
on the shooting down of several enemy drones over the Persian Gulf, and said
Iran has targeted a large number of these pilotless planes during the last 7
years.

"We have experienced similar incidents many times in the past and there have
even been drones belonging to the occupying Zionist regime (Israel), the
United States and Britain which have been shot down in the Persian Gulf
during the past 7 years," the senior military official told FNA Monday on
the condition of anonymity.

He also confirmed that the planes had been targeted outside Iranian
airspace, and noted, "The move shows that we are careful in a bid to stop
violation of Iran's airspace by alien aggressive drones."

Yesterday, Deputy Head of the General Staff of Iran's Armed Forces Major
General Gholam Ali Rashid confirmed earlier reports claiming that several US
drones have been shot down by the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) air
defense units, and said that the planes had been targeted outside Iranian
airspace.

"Of course, I should say that the drones have been shot down by an air
defense response of the IRGC Air Force outside Iran's airspace, that is
outside our FIR (Iran's Flight Information Region), in the Persian Gulf,"
Rashid told FNA on Sunday.

A flight information region (FIR) is an aviation term used to describe
airspace with specific dimensions, in which a flight information service and
an alerting service are provided. It is the largest regular division of
airspace in use in the world today.

Rashid further added that these pilotless planes are currently kept and
controlled by the IRGC.

Meantime, Commander of the IRGC Naval Forces Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi told
FNA on Saturday that the IRGC will definitely show these crippled drones in
an appropriate time.

The remarks came after Commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force Brigadier
General Amir Ali Hajizadeh told "Payam Engelab" (Message of the Revolution),
an internal publication of the IRGC, that Iranian military forces had shot
down several spy planes of foreign forces, adding that two of these planes
had been shot down over the Persian Gulf.

"We have, thus far, shot down a large number of their highly advanced spy
planes".

He declined to mention the exact date and location of the development.

After shooting down these planes the IRGC aerospace unit has copied and
produced them in large numbers through reverse engineering, the commander
added.