TEHRAN – A former chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has warned the United States and its allies not to underestimate Iran’s defense power.

“Today, observers and analysts have realized that we are not Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. Americans and their allies should know that lions do not show their teeth for smiling,” Mohsen Rezaei said in a tweet on Friday.

Rezaee’s tweet came a day after the IRGC brought down a U.S. spy drone after it had intruded into Iranian airspace and was conducting espionage activities. 

In a statement on Thursday, the IRGC announced that a U.S.-made Global Hawk surveillance drone was brought down by its Air Force near the Kouh-e Mobarak region, which sits in the central district of Jask County, after the aircraft violated Iranian airspace.

Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the aerospace unit of the IRGC, said on Friday that the drone had received warnings for four times before being shot down.

To prove that the drone had entered Iran’s airspace, the IRGC on Friday put on display the wreckage of the aircraft. 

MH/PA