Iran has claimed that it has successfully decoded footage from a US drone that it downed over a year ago, and has released a video to back its statements on Youtube.
In the black and white video, Iran shows footage it claims was taken from a US RQ-170 spy plane, according to Iranian news agencies.
Part of the footage is narrated by a man identified within the Iranian media as Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh.
“This aircraft has carried out many operations in the countries around Iran," the narrator says. "In the operations taken place in Pakistan, this aircraft guided many of the clashes ..."
Iran said it downed the drone on December 4, 2011 near Kashmar in the country's northeast, some 225 kilometers (140 miles) from the border with Afghanistan.
U.S. officials acknowledged that the drone was indeed missing, and President Barack Obama asked Iran to return it. At the time Iranian military officials vowed not to return the plane.
This new claim from Tehran comes while the U.S. drone program is being heavily debated in Washington.
On Thursday, the Senate Intelligence Committee will receive a classified drone policy document that attempts to justify the administration's policy of targeting Americans overseas via drone attacks, a topic that has recently stirred controversies among US policymakers
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