DUBAI - Iran's Revolutionary Guards unveiled a home-built drone that they said was capable of carrying bombs, state media reported on Saturday, in what appeared to be another copy of a reconnaissance US drone that Iran captured five years ago.
The drone, called Saegheh, or lightning, was unveiled at an expo showcasing the latest achievements by the Revolutionary Guards' aerospace arm.
"This long-range drone is capable of hitting four targets with smart precision-guided bombs with high accuracy," the head of the Revolutionary Guards' aerospace arm, Amir Ali Hajizadeh, was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA.
The Guards did not demonstrate the drone's abilities and did not say what range it had.
Photograph carried by the Tasnim news agency showed the Iranian drone looked similar to the US RQ-170 Sentinel aircraft that was captured in eastern Iran in 2011. Iranian media said the Iranian model was based on the US one.
US President Barack Obama asked Iran to give back the drone which belonged to American forces in neighbouring Afghanistan, but Tehran said Washington should apologise for spying on the country with unmanned aircraft.
Meanwhile, the United States has said it was "deeply troubled" that Iranian courts had upheld a 16-year prison term against journalist and human rights activist Narges Mohammadi, and it urged Tehran to release her on humanitarian grounds.
"No one should be jailed for peaceful, civic activism," State Department spokesman Mark Toner told a news briefing, noting reports indicated Narges' health was "rapidly deteriorating while in prison" and she had been barred from communicating with her two young children.
"Given these circumstances, the imposition of this prison sentence is particularly harsh and unjustified and we call on the government of Iran to provide Narges with adequate medical care and to release her on humanitarian grounds," Toner said.
Narges was arrested last year after launching a campaign to end the death penalty in Iran. She was sentenced to 16 years in prison in May for founding the anti-death penalty movement, which was deemed to be an illegal splinter group.
Narges, a vice chair of the Center for Supporters of Human Rights, had previously been sentenced to five years in prison for conspiring against the Islamic Republic and one year for anti-government propaganda due to her human rights activism.
She had been released on bail for medical reasons but was rearrested last year and ordered to serve out the earlier sentences because of her work campaigning against the death penalty.
