U.S. Weighed Options to Recover, Destroy Drone in Iran

The U.S. initially contemplated several plans to recover or destroy the drone that ended up in Iran late last week, a senior U.S. official confirmed to Fox News.

The U.S. did not go through with the plans, apparently because of the risk involved. But the source told Fox News that officials examined several possibilities for dealing with the downed RQ-170 drone.

"Of course we did," the official said. "It would have been imprudent not to."

Among the options, the U.S. considered sending in a special-ops team to retrieve the drone; sending in a team to blow up the aircraft; and launching an airstrike to destroy it.

The official also refuted Iranian claims that the country shot down the drone.

The Wall Street Journal first reported that the U.S. considered a mission to recover or destroy the drone. The newspaper reported that officials, though, were concerned such a mission could be considered an act of war. Some reportedly argued that Iran might not even discover the missing aircraft since it crashed in a remote area of the country.

Iran, though, now claims to have the aircraft.

Fox News has learned that the drone was part of a joint CIA-military reconnaissance operation. NATO has said the drone may have been one that was flying a mission over western Afghanistan before operators "lost control" of it.

Fox News' Justin Fishel contributed to this report.