Washington (US), 3 February (LaPresse/AP) – The United States Central Command (Centcom) has stated that a US Navy fighter jet shot down an Iranian drone that was approaching the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea. According to Centcom, the drone approached the aircraft carrier “aggressively” with “unclear intentions” and continued to head towards the ship despite de-escalation measures taken by US forces operating in international waters. The US military reported that the shoot-down occurred a few hours after another incident in which Iranian forces attempted to stop a US-flagged merchant ship with an American crew in the Strait of Hormuz. The drone, identified as a Shahed-139, was destroyed by an F-35C fighter jet aboard the Lincoln, which was approximately 800 kilometres off the southern coast of Iran at the time of the incident. There were no injuries to US personnel or damage to equipment.