In response to the latest strikes, an Iranian military spokesman warned hat any renewed US aggression will meet an immediate and broader response, expanding beyond West Asia, according to local media outlet.
Spokesman Mohammad Akraminia said any future US military venture would face an attack “harder and broader than in the past”. He warned that if a new war broke out, “the geography of the conflict will not remain limited to the West Asia region.”
The United States conducted “defensive” strikes on Iranian targets in the Strait of Hormuz, officials tell US media, following reports of blasts on Iran’s Qeshm Island. The US officials described the strikes as limited and said they were in response to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) firing upon a US aircraft.
Five explosions were heard on Iran’s Qeshm island. The IRGC meanwhile said in a statement that it brought down two US MQM-170 drones, which it described as reconnaissance aircraft, south of Qeshm Island and a US MQ-9 drone east of the Strait of Hormuz.
The strikes according to the US sources destroyed an Iranian surface-to-air missile launcher after the IRGC fired at a US aircraft from Qeshm Island. Another source quoted that the US military struck radar detectors and missile launchers on Qeshm Island.
Further explosions were reported near Bandar Lengeh, close to the Strait of Hormuz, with eyewitnesses saying they came from the direction of the sea.
The attack followed comments by Trump playing down the possibility of a return to war after Tuesday’s midterm election.
Elsewhere in Yemen, the internationally recognised government says its forces recaptured positions from Houthi forces in Lahij governorate in the south-west of the country.“Our armed forces have succeeded in recapturing positions in the al-Khazzan al-Ahmar area on the al-Nusayrah front in the al-Sawalihah sub-district of the al-Maqatirah district in northern Lahij governorate, and have repelled the terrorist Houthi militias,” the government forces’ media centre said in a social media post.