Iran recovered data from captured U.S. spy drone

Tehran (CNN) -- Iran declared Sunday it has "cracked the codes" of the intelligence gathering system of a U.S. spy drone it captured last year for violating its airspace, the nation's semiofficial media reported.

Tehran bragged about seizing the unmanned U.S. drone aircraft with stealth technology in December and displayed it on national television as a victory for Iran.

Months later, an Iranian senior military official declared armed forces have extracted data from it to prove a point to the Pentagon, which they said expressed doubt Tehran can be able to decode it.

"This plane is seen as a national capital for us and our words should not disclose all the information that we have very easily," Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh was quoted as saying by the semiofficial Fars News Agency.

"Yet, I provide four cues in here to let the Americans know how deep we could penetrate into the intelligence systems and devices of this drone."

Some data from the drone's memory device revealed it had flown over the Pakistani hideout of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden two weeks before his death in May, according to Hajizadeh.

"Had we not accessed the plane's softwares and hard discs, we wouldn't have been able to achieve these facts," he said.

Iran has also decoded information such as protocols, repairs and flight sorties, said the military leader, who commands the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps' aerospace forces.

Information shows the drone was in California in October 2010 for repairs and was moved to Afghanistan the following month, where it had problems that U.S. experts could not solve, he said.

The United States did not immediately comment on Tehran's claims Sunday.

In December, President Barack Obama said the United States asked Iran to return the drone aircraft it claimed to have. At the time, two U.S. officials confirmed to CNN that the missing drone was part of a CIA reconnaissance mission that involved both the intelligence community and military personnel stationed in Afghanistan.

"We've asked for it back. We'll see how the Iranians respond," Obama had said.

Iranian military officials have vowed not to return the plane.