Commander: US U-2 Spy Aircraft Shooed Away Near Iranian Borders
Commander of Khatam al-Anbia Air Defense Base has said forces have warned US U2 intelligence planes near Iran’s air space.
Brig. Gen. Farzad Esmaili who was speaking in a ceremony in Tehran told reporters that his forces had warned the planes in recent days. US U2 planes had been approaching Iran’s air space earlier in August in a similar position and they received warnings and thus flew away to Pakistan air space.
Esmaili pointed to a former event in 2014 and praised the forces’ conduct in grounding ISAF plane which had been flying in Iranian air space without necessary permits.
In January 2015, the ISAF Airbus A300 was entering Iranian airspace in the border with Afghanistan on Friday, 17 local time, quite unaware of the fact that our intelligence located inside borders covered about 100 to 150Km outside the borders as well; the pilot identified the plane as ISAF 04, who transferred NATO and American soldiers and military to Afghanistan,” accounted Gen. Esmaili, “the command center of Khatam al-Anbia air defense base received information by the plane stating that it was a passenger jet, apparently to deceive our air control; the Base launches action in close collaboration with country’s National Aviation Authority, communicating the message to 04 that we believe it was a military plane anyhow, and should land in Bandar Abbas airport,” said the commander.
