Iran Shoots Down U.S. Drone, Sending Regional Tensions Soaring

Iran shot down an American spy drone near the entrance to the Persian Gulf under disputed circumstances, escalating tensions in a region that’s been on the brink of a military confrontation for weeks. Oil prices surged.

Iranian media said the aircraft was hit inside Iranian airspace. The U.S. said the Global Hawk drone was flying in international airspace when it was shot down by an Iranian missile over the Strait of Hormuz, an oil choke point.

“Iranian reports that the aircraft was over Iran are false,” said Navy Captain Bill Urban, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command. “This was an unprovoked attack on a U.S. surveillance asset in international airspace.”

The downing of the drone fanned fears that a military clash between the U.S. and Iran is just a matter of time, stoking tension throughout the Gulf, which supplies one-third of the world’s oil. Iranian media said the aircraft was hit near Kuh Mobarak, on Iran’s southern coast.

“We will defend Iran’s airspace and maritime boundaries with all our might,” Ali Shamkhani, secretary for the Supreme National Security Council, was quoted as saying by state-run Iranian Students’ News Agency. “It doesn’t matter which country’s aircraft cross our airspace.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that a war in the region could trigger a fresh wave of refugees.

“I want to say at once that this would be a catastrophe for the region” that may stoke “a surge in violence and perhaps an increase in the number of refugees,” Putin said at his annual “Direct Line” call in show on Thursday.

The region has been volatile since the President Donald Trump tightened sanctions on Iranian oil sales in early May, sent military reinforcements to the region and provoked an increasingly squeezed Iranian government to pull back on commitments under the 2015 deal that was meant to prevent it from developing a nuclear bomb.