IRGC strike destroys US AWACS surveillance aircraft in Saudi Arabia

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) says it has hit and destroyed a Boeing E3 Sentry surveillance aircraft belonging to the US Air Force in a retaliatory strike against a US-run military installation in Saudi Arabia.

“In response to the hostile actions of the terrorist US army…, the IRGC Aerospace Force, in a joint missile and drone operation, managed to completely destroy an E3 aircraft, better known as Airborne Early Warning and Central System (AWACS), with airborne reconnaissance, command and control capabilities,” the Public Relations Department of the IRGC said in a statement on Sunday.

The combined Iranian operation completely destroyed the US Air Force’s surveillance aircraft and inflicted heavy damage on nearby planes, it added.

Images circulated on social media platforms show the wreckage of a Boeing E3 Sentry aircraft at the US-operated base in Saudi Arabia, which had been deployed at the site from Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City.

The pictures show that an Iranian projectile has hit the most important and sensitive section of the aircraft near its tail, where the expensive AN/APY2 reconnaissance radar is fitted.

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This came a day after the IRGC said a warehouse storing Ukrainian anti-drone systems was destroyed in a missile operation in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates.

The spokesperson for the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters said on Saturday that the site was struck in a hybrid operation conducted by the IRGC Aerospace Force and Navy.

He noted that 21 Ukrainians were present at the location, whose fate remains unknown.

The United States and Israel launched a large-scale and unprovoked military campaign against Iran on February 28, assassinating Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and several high-ranking military commanders despite indirect Tehran-Washington negotiations on Iran’s peaceful nuclear program.

In response, the Iranian Armed Forces immediately initiated powerful missile and drone operations against US interests across the West Asia region and Israeli positions in the occupied territories.

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