Iranian drone footage purportedly shows U.S. drone in its sights

FILE – In this Jan. 31, 2010 file photo, an unmanned U.S. Predator drone flies over Kandahar Air Field, southern Afghanistan, on a moon-lit night. The deaths of an Italian and an American in a covert CIA drone strike in Pakistan have breathed new urgency into a long-stalled plan to give the Pentagon primacy over targeted killing of terrorists overseas. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)

A video shared by Hezbollah’s Al Manar TV Wednesday purportedly shows footage of an American drone being tracked by an Iranian drone over Syria. The footage shows what appears to be a Predator drone in the sights of what is claimed to be an Iranian drone over Tanf, Syria, the site of a border crossing into Iraq.  

The voice-over in Farsi states that “this is an American drone” and that it had been identified by the Iranian drone, which tracked it undetected. The voice-over continues, “we could shoot you down anytime, but we take pity on you.” The video was tweeted by Dalati, a BBC foreign news producer covering Syria & the wider conflict since 2012.

The video emerged amid escalating tensions between the U.S. and backers of the Assad regime, which include Iranian militias. U.S. and British Special Forces use a facility at Tanf to train Syrian opposition forces for the fight against ISIS.