The U.S. began warfare again over the weekend, for the first major strike since the end of July, when the U.S. hit what it said were missile launchers on Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz, Aug. 30. Since then Iran struck at two U.S. bases in Jordan, and sent attack drones to a site in the UAE. Reports are they were repelled. Now the U.S. is blaming Iran for starting the exchange, which Iran denies, and is counter-claiming.
The Iranian army said today that it had launched a drone strike against U.S. troops and helicopters at the Al Minhad airbase in the UAE, reported IRNA. “Since early morning, the Islamic Republic of Iran Army has targeted locations housing US military helicopters and personnel at Al Minhad base in the UAE with dozens of explosive drones,” the statement said. The strike on Al Minhad followed the earlier strikes aimed at the Muwaffaq Salti and King Hussein air bases in Jordan. In all cases, no evidence of the damage caused by the Iranian strikes has emerged. The UAE Ministry of Defense denied that Al Minhad had been hit, claiming instead that air defenses had shot down one drone coming from Iran.
President Trump claimed in comments to Fox News that U.S. air defenses shot down seven out of eight Iranian ballistic missiles with the eighth one landing in an empty desert. “We’re going to hit them hard,” a Fox News reporter quoted Trump as saying. “There will be a response” to the Iranian retaliation, he said.
A senior Iranian source told Reuters that the overnight hostilities between the United States and Iran were a “limited and contained confrontation” but added that Tehran would deliver a harsh response if attacked again.
The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps said in a statement that its air defense forces shot down an American MQ-9 reconnaissance drone over the Strait of Hormuz.
