According to the AP, Iran will not be returning a US drone that was captured by their armed forces, says a commander of the Revolutionary Guard. General Hossein Salami made remarks in a broadcast to state television that the US had violated Iran’s airspace by sending a US drone. He called this a “hostile act” and then warned the nation of a “bigger” response. He didn’t elaborate on what this biggest response could be.
 
Salami was quoted by saying “”No one returns the symbol of aggression to the party that sought secret and vital intelligence related to the national security of a country.”
 
In a broadcast on Thursday, Iranian military officials were caught inspecting what seemed to be an RQ-170 sentinel drone. Iran has said that they detected the drone over Kashmar, a town in the eastern part of the country. This is about 140 miles from the border of Afghanistan. The US has made a statement that it is their drone.
 
Salami went on to call the capturing of the drone a victory for Iranian people and a loss for the United States. The two countries are known to be in a technological and intelligence based battle. “Iran is among the few countries that possesses the most modern technology in the field of pilotless drones. The technology gap between Iran and the U.S. is not much,” Salami also commented.
 
The Revolutionary Guard has claimed that it is responsible for bringing the drone down with an electric ambush. This caused the drone to come down without major damage tot eh unit. However, the US is claiming that Iran did not shoot the drone out of the sky or use a technology-based attack to bring it down.
 
Salami himself did not go into how the drone was brought down. He said that an intelligence agency cannot reveal their methods.