US Officials Confirm Limited Defensive Strike on Iran's Qeshm Island

US officials have confirmed that American forces carried out limited strikes on Iran's Qeshm Island on Monday, November 2. Three US officials told CNN the action was defensive, meant to protect US assets in the region. One official said Iran had fired at a US aircraft first, and the operation was not the major combat operation officials had been contemplating.

"This was a defensive measure for Iranians using surface to air missiles against US assets," one unnamed US official told CNN. The Associated Press, via NBC News, quoted a US official, not authorised to speak publicly, who said the targets were Iranians using surface-to-air missiles against US assets, and that the strikes appeared limited, not a return to full hostilities. Reuters and the Associated Press both reported the targets were surface-to-air missiles used against US assets, and a senior US official told CBS News that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had fired at an American aircraft beforehand.

A launcher destroyed in self-defence, one report says

A senior American official told Axios correspondent Barak Ravid, as relayed by N12 and the Times of Israel, that a US fighter jet acted in self-defence and destroyed a surface-to-air missile launcher on Qeshm after the IRGC fired an anti-aircraft missile from it. The same account said comparable self-defence strikes had taken place many times in recent weeks but were kept quiet.

The strike was first reported on Monday by the Wall Street Journal, citing US officials, in a report relayed by Reuters. Iranian state media outlet IRNA reported explosions on Qeshm Island and gave no confirmed cause. Iran's state-affiliated Fars News Agency later reported explosions heard on Qeshm in the early hours of Tuesday, November 3, also heard by residents of Hengam Island and the port city of Bandar Abbas.

Why Qeshm matters

Qeshm Island sits about 14 miles from Bandar Abbas and is key to Iran's attempts to assert control over traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 million barrels of oil passed every day before the war, CNN reported. The United States has targeted the island previously in the war. Washington and Tehran have been at war since February 28, and traffic through the strait, which previously carried about a fifth of global crude oil and natural gas supplies, has been sharply reduced.

Brent crude futures rose 48 cents, or 0.5 percent, to $105.25 a barrel by 0104 GMT on Tuesday, and US West Texas Intermediate crude rose 47 cents, or 0.5 percent, to $96.93 a barrel, Reuters reported. Brent had settled $8.66, or 7.63 percent, lower at $104.77 a barrel on Monday.

Talks continue, and Tehran warns Washington

Earlier on Monday, President Donald Trump raised doubts about whether he would follow through on a threatened resumption of strikes against Iran and said a deal with Tehran could happen. Asked by reporters on Monday if he was considering striking Iran after Tuesday's midterm elections, Trump answered "no". Tehran said contacts with the United States to end the war are continuing, after days of talks with Qatari mediators ended with altered proposals but no breakthrough.

Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the Iranian parliamentary speaker leading negotiations with the US, warned early on Tuesday: "The Iranian nation will not surrender to the enemy's threats and military actions."

US Central Command had not responded to requests for comment in the CNN and New York Post accounts, the Pentagon referred questions to CENTCOM, and no casualty or damage figures have been confirmed. Every confirmation so far comes from unnamed US officials, not an official US statement.