US Strikes Iran's Qeshm Island as Mediators Head to Tehran
US forces struck Iran's Qeshm Island late on Monday in what US officials described as defensive strikes in the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow shipping route off Iran's coast. Al Jazeera It was the first US attack on the island since June.
Several explosions were heard on the island in rapid succession, according to reports. Witnesses told IRNA, Iran's state news agency, that they saw two planes flying over the island. Iran's Fars News Agency reported explosions in the early hours of Tuesday local time. CNN
A US official said the strikes were in response to an Iranian attack on a US aircraft. ABC News An unnamed US official told the Associated Press that the strikes were defensive and were aimed at Iranian surface-to-air missiles, which the AP described as being used against US assets. Separately, an unnamed official told the Wall Street Journal that the Monday night strikes appeared limited and were not a resumption of a major operation.
Iran's account differs in part. IRNA reported that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran's ideological military force, had destroyed a US MQ-9 drone, an unmanned surveillance aircraft, east of the Strait of Hormuz before the strikes.
The island has been at the center of earlier clashes. US Central Command, the American military headquarters for the region, said in June that its forces had defeated multiple Iranian ballistic missiles and drones and carried out self-defense strikes on Qeshm. CENTCOM On June 5, US forces struck Iranian coastal surveillance radar sites in Goruk and on Qeshm Island. CENTCOM On March 7, the US struck a desalination plant on Qeshm, a facility that turns seawater into drinking water, cutting freshwater supplies to 30 surrounding villages.
The wider conflict began on February 28, when the US and Israel launched strikes across Iran. The fighting led to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Diplomacy is running alongside the fighting. Qatari mediators travelled to Tehran on Monday night for talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on a draft US-Iran agreement that has been under negotiation for eight days. Iran's delegation left Doha, the Qatari capital, on Sunday, but a draft proposal was still being circulated. Al Jazeera
