involvement in those attacks. a senior u.s. official tells fox news that iran fired a missile at a u.s. drone that was flying nearby at the time. eric: we have team fox news coverage for you. garrett tenney standing by with reactions at the white house. let s begin with jennifer griffin, live in washington. reporter: we have new details of an incident we first reported last night about the u.s. mq-9 reefer drone that was fired on by the iranians on thursday. a senior u.s. official tells me just minutes after the first distress call went out from the mv tanker at 6:12 a.m. local time on thursday, the u.s. military moved an unmanned mq-9 reefer drone over the altair. the drone arrived at 6:20 a.m. local time, eight minutes after the first distress call went out. at 6:45 a.m. local time, prior to the second attack on the second tanker, a missile was fired at the u.s. drone on
the second attack, on the second tanker, a missile was fired at the u.s. drone on station over a norwegian flagship. it missed. u.s. officials have assessed that the missile was a modified sa-7 surface to air missile fired from iran s mainland. it was fired after the u.s. drone arrived to assist the norwegian tanker. separately we have learned from u.s. officials that an american mq9 drone was shot down over yemen by iranian-backed rebels on june 6. the british government has issued a statement blaming iran s revolutionary guard for the tanker attack saying no other state or non-state actor could have been responsible, but the german government said it needs more evidence than the video released by u.s. central command allegedly showing an iranian boat removing an un exploded mine from the side of one of the damaged vessels. after two days iran finally
they ve been at this small boat harassment for more than 30 years. i think it s very clear, iran is did cause of this and they are the ones that are being provocative at this point. what are the appropriate mention steps, especially from the united states. next number one is keep up the surveillance. athey ll be talking with allies, sharing intelligence. also looking at the contingency plans but for things around the naval sphere, do they want to do more escorting? are they able to do it with surveillance instead? we want to augment some more forces in the region. i think the u.s. and our allies will be talking about potential next military steps but will all depend on whether iran pushes. and the fact that they were shooting at a that mq-9 as jennifer reported, they are guilty, guilty, guilty. before we let you go, can you talk about the cost of
mainland after u.s. drone arrived on station to assist norwegian tanker, separately we have learned from u.s. official that week earlier american mq9 drone was shot down over yemen by iranian-backed houthi rebels, that attack took place on june 6th, eric. eric: jennifer, some of the allies are speaking up and condemning iran for this. that s right, the british government has issued a blunt statement blaming iran revolutionary guard corp. for the tanker attack saying no other state or nonstate actor could plausibly have been responsible but the german government says it needs more evidence than the video released by u.s. central command allegedly showing iranian boat removing unexploded mine from side of vessels, took more than 2 days for iran to release those 23 sailors detained from the mv, those sailers arriebed in dubai, u.s. officials tell me they weren t rescued by iran, i m
waters. we re putting maximum pressure on through economic sanctions but it s iran s revolutionary guard navy that s made the choice to push this and carry out these attacks. so i think they are inviting conflict. it s up to them, looks to me like they re spoiling for a fight. they re in the strait of hormuz. you wonder how far that fight is going to go. you wonder i guess what do you think? do you think the white house s maximum pressure strategy would work? do you think that s the right thing to do right now? or do you think we re possibly on the verge of war? i think the policy is on a good course and let s look for a minute at what the situation is really like. one thing that s very different is that we have great surveillance, the video that s come probably off the mq-9 drone that clearly shows an iranian boat up against that tanker, that s just an example of how closely the u.s. and our allies can watch what s going on in the gulf. those are relatively new