DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards said that a U.S. drone shot down on Thursday had turned off its identification transponder, the state broadcaster IRIB reported.

“The drone took off from a U.S. base in the southern Persian Gulf ... It had turned off all its identifying equipment in violation of aviation rules and was moving in full secrecy,” IRIB quoted a Guards statement as saying.

Tehran said earlier that the Guards had downed a U.S. drone flying over southern Iran, raising fears of military confrontation with the United States. Washington said a U.S. drone had been shot down in international airspace.