The U.S. military shot down a suspected Iranian drone flying “aggressively” toward the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group with “unclear intent” in the Arabian Sea on Tuesday, a U.S. official told the Washington Examiner.
A U.S. F-35C aircraft from the USS Abraham Lincoln shot down the Shaheed-139 drone as it headed toward the carrier strike group.
No U.S. service members were hurt in the incident, which marks the first time the U.S. and Iran engaged militarily with one another during the current tension that largely began last month, representing the possibility for unintended escalation.
“USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) was transiting the Arabian Sea approximately 500 miles from Iran’s southern coast when an Iranian Shahed-139 drone unnecessarily maneuvered toward the ship,” U.S. Central Command Spokesman Capt. Tim Hawkins told the Washington Examiner. “The Iranian drone continued to fly toward the ship despite de-escalatory measures taken by U.S. forces operating in international waters.”
Later on Tuesday, two Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps boats and a Mohajer drone approached the M/V Stena Imperative in the Strait of Hormuz “at high speeds and threatened to board and seize the tanker,” he said.
President Donald Trump has threatened to carry out military operations against Iranian targets, but he has also urged them to negotiate a new agreement about their nuclear program and more as a way to prevent him from authorizing such a mission.
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These incidents are unlikely to help the diplomatic efforts, which are expected to kick off later this week, though it’s unclear whether Tuesday’s events will change that.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday that Steve Witkoff, one of the president’s envoys leading the United States’s mediating team, is still expected to speak with Iranian officials later this week.
The president initially threatened Iran over their deadly crackdown on nationwide protests in December 2025 and early January, though those protests have largely been squashed. Iranian officials said more than 3,100 people were killed in the protests, which they characterized as violent foreign terrorist uprisings, while human rights organizations dispute their framing and believe the death toll is much higher, as they are inundated with thousands of cases under investigation.
In recent weeks, the president has pivoted to getting the Iranians to agree to a deal that would focus on limiting its nuclear program and more.
Trump had threatened that not agreeing to a new deal could result in a stronger U.S. military attack than when U.S. forces bombed three of their nuclear facilities last June. Simultaneously, Iranian officials have threatened that if attacked, they would retaliate more aggressively than they did when they telegraphed their response to avoid unintended escalation.
After the U.S. bombings last June, Iranian forces fired ballistic missiles at Al Udeid Air Base, the largest American military base in the Middle East, which is in Qatar. The base holds roughly 10,000 U.S. service members.
