US says may have downed 2 Iran drones last week, not 1

A US warship may have brought down two Iranian drones in the Gulf last week, the American military has said.

"We are confident we brought down one drone, (and) we may have brought down a second," US Central Command Chief General Kenneth McKenzie told CBS news in an interview aboard the USS Boxer, the ship that took action against the drones in the Strait of Hormuz.

A US Central Command spokesman, Earl Brown, later said that it was a defensive action by the USS Boxer in response to aggressive interactions by two Iranian drones in international waters.

"We observed one (drone) crash into the water but did not observe a "splash" for the other," Brown added.

Iran has denied that it lost any of its own unmanned aerial vehicles, after US President Donald Trump announced that the USS Boxer had downed one.

The incident marked a new escalation of tensions between the two countries less than a month after Iran shot down an American drone in the same waterway and Trump came close to retaliating with a military strike.

"This is the latest of many provocative and hostile actions by Iran against vessels operating in international waters. The US reserves the right to defend our personnel, facilities and interests and calls upon all nations to condemn Iran's freedom of navigation...," Trump had said.

( With inputs from IANS )