Blasts reported on Iran’s Qeshm Island amid reports of US strikes in Hormuz

Explosions were reported on Iran’s Qeshm Island late on Monday as US news outlets, citing American officials, said the United States had struck Iranian targets in the Strait of Hormuz. The reports emerged amid diplomatic efforts to avert renewed US attacks on Iran and ahead of Tuesday’s US midterm elections.

Iran’s state-owned IRNA news agency reported several blasts in quick succession on Qeshm, which lies off the country’s southern coast near the strait. Witnesses interviewed by the agency said they had seen two aircraft above the island. The semi-official Fars news agency separately reported that explosions could be heard in Bandar Lengeh, a port city, from the direction of the sea.

The Wall Street Journal cited US officials confirming military strikes, with some describing their purpose as limiting Iran’s capacity to attack commercial vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz. One official told the newspaper that Washington had intentionally avoided publicising the campaign because it did not want to suggest that major combat operations were resuming.

A US official quoted by The Associated Press also characterised the action as defensive, saying it targeted Iranians who were using surface-to-air missiles against US assets. Reporters from Fox News and Axios said the strikes followed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps firing on an American aircraft in the strait on Monday. Fox News reporter Jennifer Griffin, citing a US official, said the incident was not “the start of expanded strikes by the US”. Neither Iranian nor US authorities immediately commented.

Earlier on Monday, the IRGC said its electronic warfare systems had enabled it to capture two American reconnaissance drones south of Qeshm. It also claimed to have destroyed an MQ-9 drone east of the Strait of Hormuz. The reported US strikes came as President Donald Trump’s Republican Party sought to retain control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate in the midterm elections.

Trump had suggested on his Truth Social platform on Monday that an agreement with Tehran might be close. He attributed what he described as a record oil price decline of almost $10 a barrel to expectations that war with Iran would be avoided, and said Iran wanted a settlement quickly. Asked earlier by reporters whether he was considering attacks on Iran after Tuesday’s elections, he answered “no”.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said Tehran had clearly conveyed its peace demands to Washington and that “the ball is in the US court”. He said a condensed Iranian proposal for reopening the Strait of Hormuz could be put into effect within two days, provided Washington fulfilled Tehran’s conditions.

Those conditions included lifting the US naval blockade of Iranian ports and securing an end to hostilities. Baghaei said those steps would allow the strait to reopen and negotiations to resume.