American experts are analyzing Iranian footage of what appeared to be a downed US drone that allegedly entered Iran's airspace last week, the Pentagon said Thursday.

"We've had a chance to look at the imagery. We have people looking at it," said Captain John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, noting that the analysts are not "just military personnel," but declining to provide specific details.

Iranian state television earlier aired footage of what it said was the captured drone, showing what appeared to be an RQ-170 Sentinel aircraft with little visible damage.

The footage showed a cream-colored aircraft being examined by two commanders of Tehran's elite Revolutionary Guard Corps, who are in charge of the country's air defenses.

One of them, aerospace unit Brigadier General Amir-Ali Hajizadeh claimed the drone had been captured through a cyber attack.

The RQ-170 Sentinel is a high-altitude stealth reconnaissance drone made by Lockheed Martin whose existence was exposed in 2009 by specialized reviews and later confirmed by the US Air Force in 2010.

Iranian media said late Sunday that the unmanned aerial vehicle was shot down after making an incursion slightly into Iranian airspace. But no precise indication has been given by Iranian officials on where it crashed.

US media said the drone crashed in eastern Iran probably due to a technical fault. The Pentagon has confirmed it lost a drone but declined to acknowledge that it was downed in Iran or that it was operated by the CIA.

Despite US fears that Iran could access and make use of highly-advanced technology found in the drone, an American official said Wednesday that the United States had doubts "the Iranians have the expertise" to exploit the technology found in the wrecked vehicle.

The New York Times reported that the drone was part of a surveillance program that has frequently sent the hard-to-detect aircraft into Iran to map suspected nuclear sites.

The crash came at a time of heightened political tension over Iran's nuclear program, with speculation rife that Israel is mulling air strikes against Iranian atomic facilities, with or without US backing.