U.S. rejects Iran’s claim it captured an American underwater drone in Hormuz: “clearly desperate”

The U.S. military has flatly rejected the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ claim that it captured an advanced American underwater vehicle in the Strait of Hormuz, calling it “clearly desperate,” as Al Jazeera reports.

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) spokesman Captain Tim Hawkins told Al Jazeera on Sunday that the United States “maintains positive control of all of our operational drone assets” — a direct denial of the statement issued earlier in the day by the IRGC Navy.

The IRGC described the vehicle as “an advanced submarine called Remus 600,” claiming it is now “in the hands of the force’s specialists to extract its information” — a claim Washington rejects entirely.

It is not the first time the two sides have clashed over underwater drones: on September 8 the IRGC claimed the capture of an American Dive-LD drone near the entrance to Hormuz, and even then the Pentagon denied Tehran’s version, saying the vehicle had suffered a technical malfunction. The underwater-drone war has become a new layer of the naval confrontation in Hormuz — autonomous underwater vehicles are used for mine detection, seabed mapping and intelligence gathering without risking sailors, and each such incident is adding to tensions on the world’s most strategic oil route.