President Donald Trump has confirmed that US forces carried out “minor strikes” on an Iranian anti-aircraft system. CNBC and Al Jazeera report that these are the first US strikes on Iran since the midterm elections on Tuesday 3 November.
Speaking to reporters in West Palm Beach on Friday 6 November, he said:
“We do minor strikes, but they knock out. They built a little bit of an anti-aircraft device, and we knocked it out in about 15 minutes, maybe five.”
The strikes followed Iranian reports of two missiles hitting the Suza area of Qeshm Island. CNBC notes that Mr Trump did not explicitly name Qeshm.
He also told reporters: “We've made a lot of progress with Iran.” Al Jazeera reports that since the midterms he has swung between threats and hints that a resolution is near.
IRIB, citing an Iranian army statement, said air defences destroyed a US MQ-9 drone over Qeshm. The IRGC separately claimed an MQ-1, according to Al Jazeera. Neither Iranian claim has been independently checked. A CENTCOM official told Al Jazeera the situation was “relatively calm” and gave no further comment.
Mr Trump pledged in October not to strike Iran before the midterms, Time reported. That pledge did not hold. The US struck Qeshm on Monday 2 November, the day before polling, in what a US official called a “defensive measure”, according to CNBC.