TEHRAN – The United States has been a complete loser in confronting the “pious, revolutionary, jihadi and zealous children of the Iranian nation” serving in the IRGC Navy, a senior IRGC commander said on Monday.

Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi, the deputy chief of the IRGC, made the remarks on an inspection visit to the IRGC Public Relations Department, Mehr reported.

Fadavi gave a brief history of confrontations between the IRGC and the U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf over the past forty years, pointing to the recent downing of an intruding U.S. drone by the IRGC as the latest confrontation in which the U.S. suffered a big loss.

The IRGC announced on June 20 that a U.S. spy drone that violated the Iranian territorial airspace in the early hours of the day was shot down by the IRGC Aerospace Force’s air defense unit near the Kooh-e-Mobarak region in the southern province of Hormozgan.

The intruding drone was shot by Iran’s homegrown air defense missile system “Khordad-3rd”.

In comments made a few hours after the incident, IRGC Chief Major General Hossein Salami said the shooting down of the U.S. drone had a straightforward message that any foreign intrusion into Iranian territories would draw a crushing response.

MH/PA