The United States has carried out another round of strikes on Iran. President Donald Trump confirmed on Friday evening that American forces hit an Iranian air-defence system on Qeshm Island, in the Strait of Hormuz — and described the operation in strikingly casual terms.
Speaking to reporters in West Palm Beach, Florida, Trump said the strikes were limited and fast. “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 two explosions in the Suza area of Qeshm late on Friday. The semi-official Tasnim news agency said initial reports indicated two missiles had struck the island, while the official IRNA news agency cited local witnesses who said they heard an aircraft overhead before two projectiles hit. State television said there were no casualties. Iranian authorities have not released an official assessment of the damage, and it has not been independently established whether the impacts reported by Iranian media are the same strikes Trump described.
This is the second round of American strikes on Qeshm this week. On Monday, explosions were heard on Qeshm and Hengam islands and near the mainland port of Bandar Abbas, in what American officials described as defensive strikes. The first round was reported on Tuesday, when the White House was still playing down the prospect of a wider war.
Iran, meanwhile, says its air defences shot down an American MQ-9 Reaper drone over Qeshm on Saturday — the second US drone Tehran claims to have destroyed over the island in two days, after an MQ-1 on Friday. The United States has not confirmed either claim, and US Central Command, which oversees American military operations in the region, has not commented on them. CENTCOM described the situation around Qeshm as “relatively calm”.
The strikes came as diplomacy continues in parallel. Trump said Washington had made “a lot of progress” in talks with Iran, and on Saturday Qatar dismissed reports that the negotiations had failed, saying mediation efforts continue. CENTCOM also announced a reward of up to $20 million for information about Iran’s nuclear programme, including its facilities, equipment and personnel.
Why this matters: Qeshm is Iran’s largest island and sits at the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which a large share of the world’s seaborne oil passes. Shipping through the strait has been disrupted since the war between the United States and Iran began in February. A strike Trump calls “minor” still means American munitions falling on Iranian soil for the second time in a week — while both sides insist they want a deal. That contradiction is the story of this war so far: talks and strikes advancing at the same time, each round small enough to describe as limited, and each one making the next harder to walk back from.
