Iran claims to have 'hacked' software of captured US spy drone

Tehran, Apr 23 (ANI): Iran has reportedly hacked the software of an advanced US spy drone, which came down its territory last year and has started building its own copies of the aircraft.

Commander of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Brig General Amir Ali Hajizadeh gave details of the aircraft's operational history as proof that their engineers had successfully probed its records.

"Had we not accessed the plane's soft wares and hard discs, we wouldn't have been able to achieve these facts. We have decoded all this [information] and we now have an infinite amount of intelligence," the Iranian state-media quoted Hajizadeh, as saying.

According to The Telegraph, he said the drone had flown over Osama bin Laden's hideout in Pakistan a fortnight before the Al-Qaeda leader was killed in a CIA raid.

The state media report also said that Iran had 'started manufacturing models of the captured US spy plane'.

The unarmed drone was shown on Iranian state television, apparently looking intact, after coming down 140 miles inside Iranian territory in December.

Iran claimed it brought down the drone by an electronic attack after it took off from an American base inside Afghanistan, but US officials said the aircraft crashed due to a malfunction. (ANI)