Commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force Brigadier General
Amir Ali Hajizadeh told "Payam Engelab" (Message
of the Revolution), an internal publication of the IRGC,
that western forces in the region have made limited aggressions
against Iran, and "we have, thus far, shot down a
large number of their highly advanced spy planes".
"Two of these planes have been shot down in the
Persian Gulf," Gen. Hajizadeh continued.
The commander said that Iran has shot down many foreign
planes, but did not reveal it to the media, "and
this is the first time that we reveal this news".
He declined to mention the exact date and location of
the development.
After shooting down these planes the IRGC aerospace unit
has copied and produced them in large numbers through
reverse engineering, the commander added.
This is the second time Iran announces that it has shot
down western aircraft. In January 2007, an Iranian lawmaker
told FNA that Iranian military troops have shot down a
spy plane of the US army.
Representative of Dasht-e Azadegan at the Islamic Consultative
Assembly, Seyed Nezam Mola Hoveizeh told FNA at the time
that the aircraft was a spy drone of the US army and that
it had been shot down when trying to cross the borders.
"Americans send such spy drones to the region every
now and then," the lawmaker further pointed out.
Also in May 2010, Commander of the Iranian Army Major
General Ataollah Salehi said that Iran's air-defense units
shooed away a US military reconnaissance plane seeking
to approach the Iranian Army's wargame zone in the Strait
of Hormuz and Northern Indian Ocean.
"Yesterday a US reconnaissance plane sought to approach
our region but it left the area after receiving a prompt
warning from the Army's air-defense (unit)," Commander
of the Iranian Army Major General Ataollah Salehi told
reporters on May 11.
