Tehran: Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Monday it shot down a US MQ-1 drone over the Strait of Hormuz, escalating an already tense standoff between Tehran and Washington.
State broadcaster Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) said the IRGC announced the strike in a post on X, reporting the American drone had been downed above the strategic waterway. The claim was carried by other Iranian state media but authorities offered no additional details.
There was no immediate confirmation from the US military or the White House, ANI reported.
Trump Reimposes Blockade, Vows Strikes
The claim came hours after US President Donald Trump said American forces would restore a naval blockade of Iran in the Strait of Hormuz while allowing commercial shipping from other countries to pass through.
Speaking to reporters after signing an executive order, Trump said: “We’re hitting them (Iran) very heavily tonight… We have tremendous amounts of ammunition. We’re hitting them very hard, and it’ll continue, and we’ll see what happens. We’re knocking out all of their offensive capability, and we’re controlling the strait (Strait of Hormuz).We’re putting the blockade back. It’s a blockade, not for anybody but Iran. In other words, anybody doing business with Iran can’t go through. Everyone else will be able to go through… The blockade is probably more effective than hitting them. But I think the combination is the thing that really does it.”
Trump said US operations had “severely degraded” Iran’s military infrastructure, including its naval, air, missile and drone production capacities.
He added: “We had a deal with them two days ago, and then they said, ‘Oh, we can’t make that deal. We have to negotiate it further.’ And this is what they’ve done for 47 years. The difference is nobody negotiates as I do… Frankly, for 47 years, they’ve been ripping off everybody and really hurting people, killing thousands. They killed 52,000 protesters, but they also killed many, many people under Soleimani, whom I killed in the first term… We have to do what we’re doing.”
He warned the campaign would continue. “We’re doing another very major attack tonight (on Iran). They want to make a deal. They came back. We made a deal two days ago… They’ve been negotiating for 47 years, but nobody’s ever hit them militarily. We’re hitting them very hard,” Trump said.
He also claimed Iran had suffered economic and military setbacks: “Four months ago, they (Iran) had inflation of 5 per cent. Now they’re at over 350 per cent. They made a deal; they broke it probably 10 times, and they killed a lot of people. They killed our people.”
Strikes, Explosions & Regional Fallout
The announcement followed a third consecutive night of US strikes on Iranian targets. US Central Command said the operations aimed to degrade Iran’s military capabilities and reduce its ability to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s Mehr News Agency reported that US projectiles struck Omidiyeh in Khuzestan province, injuring at least four people, citing a local official. The agency also said an explosion was heard in the southern city of Bushehr at about 3.10 a.m. local time; Iranian authorities had not commented on the cause.
Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates reported that two of its tankers were hit by Iranian cruise missiles in Omani waters near the Strait of Hormuz; UAE authorities said one Indian crew member was killed and eight others were wounded.
