The wreckage of the helicopter carrying the president of Iran was ultimately detected by Iranian drones, although a Turkish drone was also involved in the search operation, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) in East Azarbaijan Province said, reports Tasnim.

Speaking to Tasnim on Monday morning, General Asghar Abbasqolizadeh said the Turkish drone had detected a black spot on the ground in the region, but the Iranian rescuers realized that what had been spotted by the Turkish aircraft was not the wreckage of the helicopter when they reached that location.

The general noted that a number of Iranian drones that were patrolling the mountainous region could ultimately detect the wreckage, take images of the crash site, and send them to the crisis command and control center.

Earlier, Armenian News-NEWS.am reported that President Ebrahim Raisi and several other Iranian officials, including Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, were killed in a helicopter crash Sunday evening, after they were returning from a meeting with the president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev. Earlier on that day, they had attended the opening ceremony of two aqueducts on the Aras River.