(Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com) The US bombed Iran’s Qeshm Island on Monday, The Wall Street Journal has reported, an attack that came as President Trump was downplaying the prospects of renewed full-scale war with the Islamic Republic ahead of the US midterm elections.
Iranian media reported earlier in the day that five explosions were heard in Qeshm and that residents saw two aircraft flying overhead. The blasts came after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said that its forces brought down two US MQM-170 drones south of Qeshm using electronic warfare.
Israel’s Channel 12 also reported the blasts as US strikes, while Trita Parsi, the Executive Vice President of the Quincy Institute, said on his Substack that Iranian sources believed Israel was behind the strikes and that a US source told him the US wasn’t responsible.
The Journal report cited anonymous officials who said the US has been conducting small-scale strikes against Iran for several weeks as Iran has been targeting commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. One official said that the US has been keeping quiet about the strikes so as not to signal any intention of resuming the full-scale bombing campaign against Iran.
Iran has so far not commented publicly about the reported US strikes on Qeshm, which comes as President Trump and Vice President JD Vance have been signaling progress in negotiations, though the US and Israel have launched major escalations against Iran in the past while the US and Iran were engaged in talks.
The US strikes came around the same time that Trump touted a drop in oil prices on Truth Social, saying that “people feel that there will not be a War with Iran” and that Iran wants “a settlement, as soon as possible. It could happen!”
So far, Iranian officials haven’t issued any statements about the strikes on Qeshm. Iran’s military has repeatedly warned that any renewed US attacks would result in significantly expanded Iranian retaliatory attacks.
This article originally appeared at Antiwar.com.
