The United States carried out limited military strikes on Iran's Qeshm Island on Monday, November 2, 2026, according to US officials cited by major American news outlets. The operation, first revealed by The Wall Street Journal, was described by officials as defensive in nature and aimed at protecting American assets in the region.
Qeshm Island sits in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which a large share of the world's seaborne oil passed before the current conflict. The island has long been used by Iran to position missiles and naval forces, and officials said Monday's strikes targeted the island's ability to threaten shipping and US forces with surface-to-air missiles.
According to the reports, the strike followed Iranian fire directed at American aircraft operating over the strait. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Monday that it had shot down two US military drones south of Qeshm Island. Iranian state-affiliated media reported several explosions on the island in the early hours of Tuesday local time, with blasts also heard on nearby Hengam Island and in the port city of Bandar Abbas.
US officials stressed that the operation was limited in scope and was not the kind of large-scale combat campaign that has been discussed in Washington in recent weeks. The Wall Street Journal reported that Washington has carried out a series of similar small-scale strikes in secret over recent weeks, a claim officials framed as defensive action to keep the strait open to commercial traffic.
The timing adds to the political weight of the disclosure. The strikes came on the eve of the US midterm elections, with voters heading to the polls on Tuesday, November 3. President Donald Trump said on Monday that a diplomatic agreement with Tehran "could happen" and that he was in no hurry to resume major military operations, while Vice President JD Vance said negotiators had made some progress toward an off-ramp. Trump also said the US "might have to go after" Pickaxe Mountain, a suspected underground nuclear site where Israel believes Iran has stored enriched uranium and advanced centrifuges.
The disclosure also underlines how unresolved the eight-month conflict remains, despite weeks of talk about a possible deal. Qatari mediators have prepared a draft agreement built around confidence-building steps, and Iran has said its plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz could begin within two days. No agreement has been announced, and the Pentagon has not publicly confirmed the strikes; US Central Command did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Iranian officials warned of a strong response to further strikes. Mojtaba Khamenei, the Iranian supreme leader, wrote over the weekend that any threat must be met with an immediate and geographically unrestricted response, and an Iranian army spokesperson vowed to expand the conflict beyond its current borders if a new war broke out.
For now, details remain limited: no casualty figures have been confirmed, and it is unclear how much damage the strikes caused. What is clear is that the quiet, unpublicised phase of the conflict is now public — on the very day Americans vote in elections that will shape the final two years of Trump's presidency.
Sources: The Wall Street Journal, CNN, USA Today, The New York Post.
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