US carries out ‘defensive’ strikes on Iran’s Qeshm Island
American forces struck Iranian targets on Qeshm Island, at the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz, late on Monday; US officials called the action limited and defensive, a response to the Revolutionary Guard firing on a US aircraft. Iranian state media reported several explosions. Hours earlier President Trump said: “We had a war with Iran. We won.”
Officials stressed the strikes were not a resumption of major combat. One told the Wall Street Journal that Washington had deliberately kept the campaign quiet to avoid signalling renewed war. Qeshm hosts a large underground missile site, a naval base and a major desalination plant. Diplomacy continues: Tehran has offered to cut its implementation timetable from seven days to two, reopening Hormuz once the blockade is lifted, and its chief negotiator said on Tuesday that “the ball is now in America’s court to prevent a war”.