DEVELOPING TONIGHT..
President Trump said the U.S. Navy downed an Iranian drone that was flying too close to a U.S. warship in the Strait of Hormuz, hours after Iranian forces said they had seized a foreign tanker, the latest in a series of incidents that have ratcheted up tensions in a vital oil shipping route.
Mr. Trump said the USS Boxer, an amphibious assault ship, took defensive action against the drone, which he said was “threatening the safety of the ship and the ship’s crew” in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow channel leading into the Persian Gulf through which a third of the world’s seaborne oil is transported.
The drone was “immediately destroyed,” Mr. Trump said. The president called the approach by the drone the latest “of many provocative and hostile actions by Iran against vessels operating in international waters.”
# # #