Tehran. Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has claimed that its air defense systems have targeted a US F-16 Fighting Falcon and an MQ-9 Reaper drone in the country’s southern airspace. In a statement released on its official news medium Sepah News, the IRGC said the US fighter jets and drones were targeted during joint retaliatory missile and drone operations by its Navy and Aerospace Division. These operations were carried out against heavy industries belonging to the US and Israel, Xinhua news agency reported. It was also added that the US Central Command (CENTCOM) has also admitted that its F-16 Fighting Falcon was targeted. Centcom gave this information in a post on social media platform X.
“A U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon lands safely at a base in the Middle East after a combat sortie in support of ‘Operation Epic Fury’.”
Additionally, the IRGC claimed on Saturday that it destroyed a Ukrainian anti-drone equipment warehouse located in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, that was being used to assist US forces.
Ibrahim Zolfaghari, spokesman for the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, Iran’s main military command, said that a warehouse in Dubai, which housed Ukrainian anti-drone systems and where 21 Ukrainian citizens were present, was targeted and destroyed in a joint operation by the ERGC’s air force and navy.
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhiy Tikhi dismissed the information as “a lie,” the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported on Saturday.
“This information does not correspond to reality. It is fake,” Interfax-Ukraine quoted a spokesman for Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Rustem Umerov as saying.
The development comes amid heightened tensions following the joint US and Israeli attacks on Iran since February 28, in response to which Iran and its regional allies launched attacks on Israeli and US interests in the Middle East.
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