The US military shot down four Iranian drones launched toward the Strait of Hormuz on Friday evening, US Central Command said — as President Trump told an audience in Wisconsin he had to hurry back to work to “straighten out a little unfinished business in Iran.”
“Moments ago, CENTCOM forces shot down four Iranian one-way attack drones that were launched toward the Strait of Hormuz,” the combatant command said in a statement shortly before 7 p.m. “The attack drones posed an immediate threat to regional maritime traffic.”
The US has been enforcing an naval blockade around Iran’s ports to impose economic pain. Tehran shut down maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz since the start of US and Israel’s war on Iran on Feb. 28.
CENTCOM said the military went on to strike “Iranian coastal surveillance radar sites in Goruk and on Qeshm Island to defend against further attacks.
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“American forces remain vigilant and postured to respond to unjustified Iranian aggression in self-defense,” CENTCOM said.
About an hour before the announcement, Iranian independent media reported the sounds of explosions from nearby Bandar Abbas — which state-affiliated media promptly denied.
The statement came shortly after Trump told speakers at his economic event in Wisconsin they would have to be quick.
“We’ll go pretty quickly, because I have to get back to fighting a war, Iran,” he said.
While the US and Iran entered into a cease-fire on April 8, ahead of short-lived peace talks in Pakistan, there have been numerous violations.
Originally meant to be a two-week temporary cessation, Trump declared it an indefinite cease-fire on April 21.
Six weeks later, there has been an increasing number of skirmishes that have so far stopped short of prompting a return to full-scale combat operations.
While most have been contained to the strait — as Iran takes aim at ships flowing through the waterway and the US enforces a blockade on Iranian ports — Tehran on Tuesday night targeted US forces based in Kuwait.
Earlier on Friday, Trump acknowledged in an interview with NBC News that Tehran still retained drones and about “21%-22%” of the missiles it had before the US launched the war on Iran.
“Most of the drone factories have been knocked out, most of the launching pads have been knocked out, and most of the missile manufacturing areas have been knocked out. But they still have capacity,” he told “Meet the Press” host Kristin Welker. “They have some missiles, they have some drones.”
“It’s a lot of missiles, but it’s not what it was when we first attacked.”
