Iran: U.S. cannot have its drone back

This photo released Dec. 8, 2011, by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards claims to show a US RQ-170 Sentinel drone which Tehran says its forces downed earlier this week. U.S officials said its missing drone was not downed. / AP Photo/Sepahnews

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran will not return a U.S. surveillance drone captured by its armed forces, a senior commander of the country's elite Revolutionary Guard said Sunday.

Gen. Hossein Salami, deputy head of the Guard, said in remarks broadcast on state television that the violation of Iran's airspace by the U.S. drone was a "hostile act" and warned of a "bigger" response. He did not elaborate on what Tehran might do.

"No one returns the symbol of aggression to the party that sought secret and vital intelligence related to the national security of a country," Salami said.

Iranian television broadcast video Thursday of Iranian military officials inspecting what it identified as the RQ-170 Sentinel drone.

Iranian state media have said the unmanned spy aircraft was detected over the eastern town of Kashmar, some 140 miles from the border with Afghanistan. U.S. officials have acknowledged losing the drone.

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Salami called its capture a victory for Iran and a defeat for the U.S. in a complicated intelligence and technological 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," he said.

Officers in the Guard, Iran's most powerful military force, had previously claimed that the country's armed forces brought down the surveillance aircraft with an electronic ambush, causing minimum damage to the drone.

American officials have said that U.S. intelligence assessments indicate that Iran neither shot the drone down, nor used electronic or cybertechnology to force it from the sky. They contend the drone malfunctioned. The officials had spoken anonymously in order to discuss the classified program.

But Salami refused to provide more details of Iran's claim to have captured the CIA-operated aircraft.

"A party that wins in an intelligence battle doesn't reveal its methods. We can't elaborate on the methods we employed to intercept, control, discover and bring down the pilotless plane," he said.

[Fatesrider]

That's okay. Just lock a tomahawk missile on its GPS location and destroy it. I think a ten kiloton yield should do it.

[longtree-2009]

iran can allow china, north korea, pakistan, cuba, and any nation that wants to examine it, take pictures of it, all for a nice fee. or iran can, after it has examined it in detail, sell it to the highest bidder of any nation. almost any nation that doesn't have the drone capability would benefit from examining the drone. iran could be sitting on a pot of gold.

[bradkt1]

That's why we used an unarmed drone...so we can afford to lose it instead of having a pilot held hostage by these hostiles.

What the hell can Iran use it for?

Can the us locate and destroy the drone?

[tmn]

Maybe if we ask real real nice...

[rwsmith29456]

This calls for an armed invasion to get our drone back.

[venusvegasvada]

I think the little alien heads on the flag are an especially nice touch.

[aigsucks]

I hope that Saudi, Kuwait, Dubai, UAW, Jordan, with Iraq will ask the USA to help them to Stop Iran from the Nuke Bomb. We have the Tech. they have the Area to Claim!!

[Drivelphobe001]

Hopefully, this is a Trojan Drone, concealing a neutron bomb set to go off with the secret signal from Petraeus. It's pretty obvious we wanted these camel jockeys to get it. Let's see what happens. My guess is it can't be good for these primitive nomads.

[usunus]

" Return the damn drone ",Penatta would growl.