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November 8, 2012
The presidential election is barely over, and yet already, U.S. relations with Iran appear to be rockier than ever. Indeed, CNN reports that fighter jets belonging to the rogue state fired on an unarmed American drone back on November 1 -- an incident just seeing daylight today.
The drone was in international airspace east of Kuwait, U.S. officials said, adding it was engaged in routine maritime surveillance.
Although the drone was not hit, the Pentagon is concerned.
Two U.S. officials explained the jets were part of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps force, which has been more confrontational than regular Iranian military forces.
The drone's still and video cameras captured the incident showing two [Iranian] SU-25s approaching the [U.S.] Predator and firing its onboard guns.
The Iranian pilots continued to fire shots that went beneath the Predator but were never successful in hitting it, according to the officials.
U.S. military intelligence analysts are still not sure if the Iranian pilots simply were unable to hit the drone due to lack of combat skill, or whether they deliberately were missing and had no intention of bringing down the drone. But as one of the officials said, "it doesn't matter, they fired on us."
The official confirmed the United States protested the incident but has not heard back from Iran.The likelihood of a hot confrontation seems to increase by the day, and it's hard to imagine that an incident like this -- which is essentially muscle-flexing on Iran's part -- won't escalate into something deadlier in the years ahead. And the fact that the Pentagon kept this from the public for a week indicates that we can probably expect more of the same from the Most Transparent Administration Ever. His first term added Libya, and now, unfortunately, it's looking like Iran is unavoidable in the second. But this incident indicates it's only a matter of time before their guns aim a little higher, and their fire is more than symbolic.
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