Rep. Jeff Van Drew said Wednesday that the drones detected flying over New Jersey in recent weeks are being operated by Iran.

He told Fox News his information came from “very high sources” that he couldn’t name.

“Iran launched a mothership, probably about a month ago, that contains these drones,” the New Jersey Republican said. “It’s off the East Coast of the United States of America. They’ve launched drones. It’s everything that we can see or hear.”

He called for the drones to “be shot down.”

A senior FBI official told Congress on Tuesday that the drones have mystified federal authorities. They have not seen any evidence of nefarious intent but couldn’t yet rule it out, said Robert Wheeler Jr., who runs the FBI’s critical incident response group.

Mr. Wheeler did say they did not believe the drones were being run by a U.S. agency.

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Mr. Van Drew said it’s also unlikely they are being run by hobbyists, so the remaining option is an adversary nation.

“Right now they’re probably extracting information. This is a clear and present danger,” he said.

• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.