IRGC Strikes US Drone in Strait of Hormuz, Warns of Restricted Zone

<p>Tehran: Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has said its naval forces struck a US unmanned surface vehicle in the Strait of Hormuz, escalating an already tense standoff over control of one of the world's most critical shipping lanes.</p>
<p>In a statement published on its official outlet Sepah News, the IRGC said the vessel was a Saildrone Explorer-type unmanned surface vehicle that was conducting what it described as an "aggressive mission" when it was struck at the strait's entrance.</p>
<p>The IRGC noted that Saildrone Explorer unmanned surface vehicles were previously used in the region by the US Fifth Fleet and Task Force 59, both headquartered in Bahrain. It added that after the US naval base in Bahrain was targeted in Iranian strikes, the unmanned surface vehicles began operating from a unit based in Khasab, Oman.</p>
<p>The IRGC reiterated its position that the Strait of Hormuz is closed and under its control, warning that "any hostile presence in the strategic waterway will be targeted."</p>
<p>Separately, the IRGC Navy said on Tuesday that its forces had captured one of the US Army's most advanced unmanned submarines, identified as a Dive-LD, at the entrance of the Strait of Hormuz. The US military subsequently acknowledged that one of its underwater drones had malfunctioned during a survey of regional waters, without addressing whether Iran had taken possession of the device.</p>
<p>Also on Wednesday, IRGC Spokesman Hossein Mohebbi announced plans for a restricted zone in regional waters that Iran intends to formally declare. He warned that any vessel entering the zone without prior coordination with Iran would face consequences.</p>
<p>"If a vessel enters this zone without coordination, it will be subject to our sanction measures; meaning that if it seeks to use the Strait of Hormuz in the future, it will not be able to do so, and we will also refuse to provide it with port, insurance, and other required services," Mohebbi said, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency.</p>
<p>He said the zone's exact coordinates would be announced at a later date, but indicated it would broadly begin around Iran's southeastern port city of Chabahar and extend across parts of the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea, including routes leading to the Strait of Hormuz.</p>
<p>Mohebbi described the Strait of Hormuz as the "strait of Iran's power", saying Iran would use that power to respond to what he called the "enemy's aggression" and compel it to halt.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Iran's Foreign Ministry issued a strong condemnation of what it described as an aggressive US military attack the previous night on a number of Iranian oil tankers. The ministry's statement added a further diplomatic dimension to an already volatile situation in the region.</p>