Iran claims it downed a US drone over the Strait of Hormuz
Revolutionary Guard says it shot down MQ-9 over Qeshm Island, latest in a series of such claims; US has not confirmed it
TEHRAN (MNTV) — Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it shot down a US MQ-9 drone over Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz early Wednesday, the latest in a long series of downing claims the Guard has made during the war with the United States. The US military did not immediately confirm the account, which could not be independently verified.
In a statement, the IRGC said its air-defense systems detected the MQ-9 — a long-range armed drone the US military uses for surveillance and strikes — over the island at about 2:30 a.m. local time and destroyed it.
It described the aircraft as the 52nd MQ-9 it had shot down, and said Tuesday it had also downed three smaller MQ-1 drones over the strait and nearby areas. The claims came from the IRGC and Iranian state media; the US, which rarely confirms such losses, has neither acknowledged nor disputed them, and Iran did not provide independently verifiable evidence.
Qeshm Island sits at the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz — the narrow waterway through which much of the world’s seaborne oil passes — which has been a central front in the conflict. Iran has effectively blockaded the strait since the war began, and both sides have exchanged strikes across the region.
The war began on Feb. 28, when the United States and Israel launched large-scale attacks on Iran, striking government, military, and air-defense sites. Iran retaliated with missile and drone attacks on Israel and on US bases across the region.
A memorandum of understanding signed in June, mediated by Pakistan and Qatar, briefly halted the fighting before it broke down amid mutual accusations of violations, and the conflict has since continued alongside stalled diplomatic efforts to end it.
Independent reporting has indicated the US has lost a significant number of MQ-9s during the war, though neither the Pentagon nor Iran has provided a verified accounting.
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