A US military drone has been shot down by an Iranian missile near to the country’s airspace. Unnamed US officials quoted by Reuters and AP news agencies said the intelligence drone was downed in international airspace over the Strait of Hormuz, south of Iran.

This contradicts reports by Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency which said the country’s Revolutionary Guard had shot down an American drone in its airspace

IRNA said the drone was hit when it entered Iranian airspace near the Kouhmobarak district in southern Iran’s Hormozgan province.

Citing the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, IRNA identified the drone as an RQ-4 Global Hawk, a high-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aircraft designed to provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.

Navy Captain Bill Urban, a US Central Command spokesman, earlier denied the reports.

“No US aircraft were operating in Iranian airspace today,” he said.

Sources: SkyNews; The Guardian