WASHINGTON — The U.S. military carried out limited, defensive strikes on Iranian targets in the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, U.S. officials told CBS News.
A senior U.S. official said the strikes hit Iran’s Qeshm Island after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps fired at an American aircraft. Another official told The Associated Press the targets were Iranian forces using surface-to-air missiles against U.S. assets.
Iranian state television reported explosions on Qeshm Island, which sits in the northern part of the strait and helps Iran monitor commercial shipping through the waterway.
Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said Tuesday that Tehran keeps “the right to legitimate self-defense” until “the military aggression has been completely and permanently brought to an end,” CBS News reported.
The strikes came on the eve of U.S. midterm elections, while U.S. and Qatari mediators are working on a possible deal. President Donald Trump wrote Monday that a deal “could happen,” and Vice President JD Vance said he and the president feel “pretty good about the prospects” for a negotiated settlement.
Later Monday, Trump said on Fox News that the U.S. still had to deal with several sites in Iran, including a suspected nuclear site known as Pickaxe Mountain.
The war began with joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on Feb. 28 and is now in its ninth month. Iran has retaliated by targeting shipping in the strait and U.S. allies and interests across the Persian Gulf.
Sources: CBS News, Associated Press via KTAR News. Thee Arizona Times uses AI-assisted reporting reviewed against the sources listed.
Photo: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC / Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
