The U.S. conducted limited airstrikes against Iran on Nov. 2, the latest in a series of attacks the U.S. military has undertaken in the last few weeks but not publicly disclosed. The strikes occurred just ahead of the U.S. midterm elections.
President Donald Trump acknowledged the latest strikes in an interview on Nov. 3.
“It was just a minor attack; it wasn’t war,” Trump said on Fox News. “They built an anti-aircraft facility. It took them about two months. We watched it get built. As soon as it was completed, we hit it last night very nicely.”
Iranian forces fired at U.S. aircraft on Nov. 2, U.S. officials said, and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed to have shot down a U.S. Air Force MQ-9 Reaper. But no U.S. aircraft are believed to have been downed, a U.S. official told Air & Space Forces Magazine.
The latest attacks took place on Qeshm Island, which has been a frequent target of U.S. attacks. It sits in the Persian Gulf just outside the critical chokepoint of the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran has repeatedly attacked commercial shipping since the U.S.-Iran war began in February, seeking to impose economic and diplomatic costs on the U.S. and its partners.
The last publicly announced strikes occurred in early September, when the U.S. attacked five Iranian tankers in response to attempted Iranian strikes on U.S. military vessels. Iran retaliated with a missile attack on Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan, a key base for the U.S., where it damaged some U.S. aircraft.
But the U.S. military has been conducting some airstrikes since then, U.S. officials said. The strikes have been limited in nature and have included targets such as air defenses and other facilities.
A spokesperson for U.S. Central Command declined to comment. The airstrikes were first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
The U.S. military engaged in smaller-scale strikes during tit-for-tat exchanges during a ceasefire that ended the all-out U.S. and Israeli strike campaign, Operation Epic Fury, in April. Since then, the U.S. has maintained firepower in the region as part of a military pressure campaign and blockade of Iranian ports.
Since then, the Trump administration has also tightened sanctions against Iran and attempted to help commercial shipping pass through the Strait of Hormuz.
For weeks, Trump publicly signaled he was considering a return to large-scale combat operations after the midterm elections, and the head of CENTCOM, Adm. Brad Cooper, met with Trump, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine last week.
If the Trump administration opts to return to major combat operations, airstrikes against air defense targets, such as those referenced by Trump, could help facilitate the operation.
“I’m not looking to, you know, kill lots of people, but if we have to, we’ll have to,” Trump told Fox News. “But I’m not looking to do that. And we’re very strong right now.”
Iran, for its part, signaled it would respond to any further U.S. military actions.
“We are still in a state of war, and from the Islamic Republic of Iran’s perspective, the aggression against our country has not ended,” Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said Nov. 3, according to Iranian state media. “As long as the military aggression has not come to a complete and permanent end, the Islamic Republic of Iran retains its right to legitimate self-defense.”