IRAN/MILITARY/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The American military downed an Iranian drone in the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday [7-18-19] in what President Trump called an act of self-defense, just hours after Iran’s chief diplomat offered a modest road map for easing tensions with the United States. Officials said the uncrewed, relatively small drone came within 1,000 yards of the Boxer, a United States amphibious assault ship in the strait. It was not known if the drone was armed, but a Pentagon spokesman, Jonathan Hoffman, said that it had ‘closed within a threatening range’ before being shot down over international waters. Mr. Trump described it as ‘the latest of many provocative and hostile actions by Iran.’ Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, appeared to brush off the president’s broadside. ‘The drone issue is being investigated, but based on the latest news I have from Tehran, we have no information about losing a drone,’ he told reporters at the United Nations.”
–Thomas Gibbons-Neff, David E. Sanger and Richard Pérez-Peña, “Trump Says U.S. Shot Down Iranian Drone as Both Nations Dig In,” The New York Times online, July 18, 2019