Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, has claimed it shot down a United States MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian news agencies Fars and Mehr reported the claim, citing an IRGC statement that said Iran’s air-defence system detected the long-range US drone in the sky over the strategic waterway and brought it down.

According to the IRGC statement, the air-defence system intercepted what it described as a long-range American MQ-9 drone after identifying its presence above the Strait of Hormuz. The statement said the drone later fell into the Gulf. The source does not include confirmation of the claim from US authorities or independent verification of the reported incident.

The claim comes as military tensions between Iran and the United States have risen again. The source says both sides have been carrying out attacks against each other after a comparatively calm period of about a month. Iran said its air-defence forces acted after detecting the US drone over the Strait of Hormuz.