President Donald Trump said on Friday that the United States military had carried out a new round of limited strikes on Iran, hitting an air-defence system on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz. Speaking to reporters in West Palm Beach, Florida, he described the operation as “minor”, saying American forces had destroyed an Iranian anti-aircraft device in a matter of minutes. “We do minor strikes,” he said. “They built a little bit of an anti-aircraft device, and we knocked it out in about 15 minutes, maybe five.”
Iranian state media reported the sound of two explosions in the Suza area of Qeshm Island, which sits in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which a large share of the world’s seaborne oil passes. The semi-official Tasnim news agency said initial reports indicated two missiles had struck the island, while the state news agency IRNA cited local witnesses who said they heard an aircraft before two projectiles hit. No official damage assessment had been released, and there were no confirmed casualties.
Iran’s army said its air-defence forces had intercepted and destroyed an American MQ-9 drone over Qeshm Island. That claim has not been confirmed by Washington, and US Central Command, which oversees American military operations in the region, said only that the situation was “relatively calm” and declined further comment. The precise relationship between the reported missile impacts and the operation Mr Trump described has not been independently established.
The strikes were the first since Tuesday’s midterm elections, in which Mr Trump’s Republican Party lost control of both chambers of Congress, and the second round on Qeshm this week. The US military had previously described defensive strikes on Monday, when explosions were heard on Qeshm and Hengam islands and near the mainland port of Bandar Abbas. Mr Trump has said he will soon decide whether to resume all-out war on Iran, a step that would mark a sharp escalation of a conflict that began with the US war on Iran in February.
At the same time, Mr Trump said his administration was talking to representatives from Tehran and had made “a lot of progress” in negotiations. Qatar, which is mediating between the two sides, denied reports circulating on Saturday that the talks had failed, saying both sides continued to work towards an agreement and that its mediation efforts were ongoing in close coordination with Washington and Tehran. Iran sent the US a nuclear proposal via Qatar earlier in the week, though the talks hinge on seven demands.
Sources: Reuters (https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/two-missiles-strike-irans-qeshm-island-tasnim-news-agency-says-2026-11-06/) and the Associated Press (https://www.europesays.com/3358089/).
