Obama demands Iran return downed US drone

Obama shed no further light on the plane’s mission or why it failed to return to a base in Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON:

President Barack Obama on Monday acknowledged a US drone was in Iranian hands for the first time and said the United States has asked Tehran to return the sophisticated spycraft.

“We’ve asked for it back. We’ll see how the Iranians respond,” Obama said at a news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al Maliki.

It was the first open confirmation by the Obama administration that Iran was in possession of the drone, which Tehran says it brought down as the plane was flying over the country’s territory.

Obama, however, shed no further light on the plane’s mission or why it failed to return to a base in Afghanistan.

“With respect to the drone inside of Iran, I’m not going to comment on intelligence matters that are classified,” he said.

The bat-winged RQ-170 Sentinel, designed to evade radar for surveillance flights, was on a CIA mission when it went missing, US officials, speaking anonymously, have said previously.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 13^th, 2011.