UPDATED: Videos released of American drone being hit in the Gulf, strike on Iran averted at last moments
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Iran and the US have both released videos purporting to show an American drone being shot down and which is threatening to escalate the tension even more. In the meantime it has been reported that the US was on the brink of attacking Iran on Friday morning.
Tehran said the drone was flying over Iranian airspace, but Washington insists it was in international air space.
U.S. Central Command posted a tweet with a map of what US authorities said was the drone’s flight path showing it outside of Iran’s territorial waters and insisted that this was an unprovoked attack on a U.S. surveillance asset that had not violated Iranian airspace at any time.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Twitter the aircraft had taken off from the United Arab Emirates “in stealth mode & violated Iranian airspace.”
In the meantime, Washington had prepared to strike Iran on Thursday night in retaliation for the downing of the drone but that approval was withdrawn before the attacks were launched.
The ISR Flight path and grid plots for the RQ-4A shot down by Iran in the Strait of Hormuz. “This was an unprovoked attack on a U.S. surveillance asset that had not violated Iranian airspace at any time …” – Lt Gen Joseph Guastella, @USAFCENTpic.twitter.com/uczI5HF68b
According to the New York Times, U.S. President Donald had initially approved strikes on a handful of targets such as radar and missile batteries, the paper cited senior administration officials involved in, or briefed on, the deliberations, as saying.
The strikes were set to take place just before dawn on Friday to minimize risk to the Iranian military or to civilians, it added.
….On Monday they shot down an unmanned drone flying in International Waters. We were cocked & loaded to retaliate last night on 3 different sights when I asked, how many will die. 150 people, sir, was the answer from a General. 10 minutes before the strike I stopped it, not….
However, it is not clear whether attacks on Iran might still go forward, the paper said, adding that it was not known if the cancellation of strikes had resulted from Trump changing his mind or administration concerns regarding logistics or strategy.
Later Friday, President Donald Trump tweeted that he was “cocked and loaded” to retaliate against Iran after its forces shot down a US drone earlier this week but decided not to at the last minute.
The president said that he was concerned that the planned retaliatory strikes would be an escalation of force. “I asked, how many people will die.” Unnamed military officers apparently told Trump that 150 Iranian people would die.
He said that such a strike is “not proportionate to shooting down an unmanned drone.” He said that he called everything off 10 minutes before the attack. The president stressed that he is “in no hurry to go to war.”
