Updated story at 12:00pm:
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump is playing down Iran’s downing of an American drone, saying that it might have been a mistake executed by someone just being “loose and stupid.”
Trump told reporters Thursday that the shoot down of the drone was a “new wrinkle” in escalating tensions between the U.S. and Iran – a “fly in the ointment.”
He was coy about whether the U.S. would respond, saying only that “you’ll find out.”
He said he has a feeling that it was a mistake – that a “general or somebody” made a mistake in shooting that drone down.
But he added that Iran made a “big mistake” and that the U.S. “will not stand for it.”
Trump’s words appear to signal that there may not be an immediate U.S. response to the incident.
Original story:
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – The U.S. military’s Central Command has confirmed that Iranian forces shot down a U.S. drone, an RQ-4 Global Hawk, saying the downing took place in international airspace and describing it as an “unprovoked attack.”
A statement from CENTCOM says the unmanned aircraft – an RQ-4A Global Hawk maritime surveillance drone – was “shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile system while operating in international airspace over the Strait of Hormuz” early on Thursday.
The statement further said that “Iranian reports that the aircraft was over Iran are false” and that “this was an unprovoked attack on a U.S. surveillance asset in international airspace.”
