Iran claims assets from downed U.S. drone

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran claimed yesterday it had recovered data from an American spy drone that went down in the country last year, including information that the aircraft was used to spy on Osama bin Laden weeks before he was killed. Iran said it was building a copy of the drone.

Similar unmanned surveillance planes have been used in Afghanistan for years and kept watch on bin Laden's compound in Pakistan. But U.S. officials have said little about the history of the particular aircraft in Iran's possession.

Tehran, which has been known to exaggerate its military and technological prowess, says it brought down the RQ-170 Sentinel, a top-secret drone equipped with stealth technology, and has flaunted the capture as a victory for Iran and a defeat for the United States.

The United States says the drone malfunctioned and downplayed any suggestion that Iran could mine the aircraft for sensitive information because of measures taken to limit the intelligence value of drones operating over hostile territory.

The drone went down in December in eastern Iran and was recovered by Iran almost completely intact. After initially saying only that a drone had been lost near the Afghan-Iran border, American officials eventually confirmed the plane was monitoring Iran's military and nuclear facilities.

Washington has asked for it back, but Iran has refused.

The chief of the aerospace division of the Revolutionary Guards, Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, told state television that the captured drone is a "national asset" for Iran and that he could not reveal full technical details.

The U.S. Defense Department would not comment on the Iranian claims.