ISTANBUL 

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced Thursday that it had downed a U.S. surveillance drone.

In a statement on its website, it was said an RQ-4 Global Hawk type drone was shot down after entering Iranian airspace in the country's south.

Tensions have been rising between the U.S. and Iran since last year, when the U.S. unilaterally withdrew from a 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany.

*Writing by Ali Murat Alhas