Iranian troops shoot down U.S. spy drone

TEHRAN, Jan. 16 (Xinhua)

Iranian troops have shot down a U.S. pilotless spy plane, Fars News Agency reported on Tuesday.

The aircraft was brought down when it was trying to cross the borders "during the last few days," Seyed Nezam Mola Hoveizeh, a member of the Iranian parliament, was quoted as saying.

The lawmaker gave no exact date of the shot-down or any other details about the incident, but said "the United States sent such spy drones to the region every now and then."

The announcement came amid reports that the United States is increasingly flexing its muscles to counter Iran's growing regional assertiveness and put more pressure on Tehran over its controversial nuclear programs.

It is reported Tuesday that a second U.S. aircraft carrier, the USS John C. Stennis, will arrive in the Middle East in about a month, the first time since the U.S.-led Iraq war in 2003 that the United States will have two carrier battle groups in the region.

Kuwait-based daily Arab Times released on Sunday said in a report that the United States might launch a military strike on Iran before April 2007.

The report, written by the daily's editor-in-chief Ahmed al-Jarallah citing a reliable source, said that the attack would be launched from the sea, while Patriot missiles would guard all Arab countries in the Gulf.

In last April, Iranian newspapers also reported that Iran had shot down an unmanned surveillance plane in the south, speculating that it belonged to the U.S. military.

The U.S. Air Force later claimed that it had not lost any aircraft in the region, but could not rule out the possibility that the spy drone was owned by U.S. intelligence units or alliance forces.