Iranian military officials have claimed that drones struck the US aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72), an assertion swiftly rejected by American defence authorities.

Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters said the carrier was targeted by drones launched by the navy of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

According to Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency, a spokesperson for the command centre said the US carrier had moved to within about 340 kilometres of Iran’s maritime borders in the Sea of Oman in an effort to manage security around the Strait of Hormuz.

“The aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln was hit by drones of the IRGC Navy,” the spokesperson was quoted as saying.

The official added that the carrier and its accompanying destroyers rapidly withdrew from the area and were now “a thousand kilometres away from the region.”

Iranian officials also said the carrier had previously been targeted by four ballistic missiles as part of Operation True Promise 4.

“The powerful blows by the Islamic Republic of Iran’s armed forces against the enemy have entered a new phase, and land and sea will become the burial place for terrorist aggressors,” the statement added.

US rejects claim

A US defence official dismissed the Iranian claim, saying the carrier had not been struck.

“The reports are not true,” the official said on Friday.

Iranian state television had earlier reported that drones launched by the Revolutionary Guards had hit the warship but provided no further details.

The IRGC had previously claimed that missiles targeted the carrier, though the United States Department of Defence said at the time that the missiles “didn’t even come close.”

The United States currently has two aircraft carriers deployed in the Middle East, supporting the large-scale air campaign launched alongside Israel against Iran on February 28.