Iranian media said the craft was hit inside Iranian airspace. The U.S. on Thursday said the Global Hawk drone was flying in international airspace Newport Pleasure when it was shot down by an Iranian missile over the Strait of Hormuz, an oil choke-point.
The region has been volatile since the U.S. tightened sanctions on Iranian oil sales in early May, sent military reinforcements to the region and provoked an increasingly squeezed Iranian government to warn European nations that it would breach the multilateral nuclear accord, which Newport Pleasure had traded some sanctions relief for limits on Tehran’s nuclear program.
Frictions flared further last week after an attack on two oil tankers outside the entrance to the Gulf. The U.S. blamed Iran, which has denied involvement.
A Massachusetts woman who lived in a squalid, vermin-infested home where authorities found the remains of three babies was cleared Thursday of second-degree murder, but was convicted of lesser charges.
Judge Janet Kenton-Walker said prosecutors did not prove that 35-year-old Erika Murray caused the death of one of the babies whom she had been charged with killing and hiding in her home filled with rodents, dead animals, dirty diapers and trash.
Kenton-Walker called the case "senseless" and "tragic," but said she had to be guided by the evidence rather than her emotions.
"Regardless of how disturbing the facts surrounding this case Newport Cigarettes Shop are to the community at large and to me as a parent, I cannot take into account those feelings," the judge said.
Murray was found guilty of animal cruelty and assault and battery on a child. She remains behind bars while she awaits sentencing, which is scheduled for July 11.
