The US military on Tuesday (local time) said it opened fire and destroyed two small Iranian boats this week trying to "steal" a drone ship in the waters off Iran.“Iranian small boats recently attempted to take possession of a US unmanned surface vessel, but they were unsuccessful after CENTCOM forcefully responded," Associated Press quoted CENTCOM spokesperson Captain Tim Hawkins as saying.CENTCOM oversees US military operations in the Middle East and has conducted operations during the ongoing war with Iran.Hawkins described the drone involved as a “Saildrone”, a small craft roughly 25 feet (8 metres) long that can operate autonomously. He added that all of the command's surface drones “remain fully accounted for.”CENTCOM has used Saildrones in the region for several years to monitor maritime traffic.

The US military has maintained that the technology used on the vessels is commercially available and does not contain sensitive technology.The development comes after Iranian state media reported Monday that two fishing boats came under attack in Hormozgan province on Iran's southern coast, with several fishermen reported missing.The latest drone incident, first reported by Axios, comes a week after the Iranian navy claimed it had captured a US military underwater drone at the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz.

Hawkins had explained at the time that an Anduril Dive-LD drone malfunctioned while surveying the waters in the region, leaving the US military without possession of the vessel. He stressed that the drone was defective and described it as an “older model that neither collected sensitive data no carried any classified sonar or radar equipment."