US Hits Iranian Boats, Missile Sites; Iran Claims Drone Shootdown

The U.S. and Iran exchanged fire multiple times May 25 in a brief but intense skirmish in the Persian Gulf. When the dust settled, both sides insisted they were still honoring a broader ceasefire and continuing to pursue a diplomatic agreement to open the Strait of Hormuz and address the llong-standing U.S. concerns over Iran’s nuclear program. 

Like many aspects of the three-month-old conflict, the U.S. and Iran issued dueling accounts of the clash. 

According to U.S. officials, U.S. forces observed two Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps vessels laying mines and sunk the ships. That prompted the Iranians to shoot at U.S. warplanes with surface-to-air missiles. The U.S. responded, in turn, by attacking Iranian missile launchers near Bandar Abbas, which is near the Strait of Hormuz, in southern Iran.

“U.S. Central Command continues to defend our forces while using restraint during the ongoing ceasefire,” Navy Capt. Tim Hawkins, a spokesman for the command, said in a statement.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed in a statement that it shot down an MQ-9 Reaper drone that was operating in Iranian airspace and also fired at a U.S. F-35 fighter jet as well as an RQ-4-type drone. (The U.S. operates MQ-4 drones, the Navy variant of the RQ-4, in the region.) The IRGC also said that four of its naval personnel were killed in the U.S. attacks. 

To try to buttress its claims, Iran’s state-affiliated IRNA agency posted a video of what it claimed was an MQ-9 being knocked out of the sky by an Iranian surface-to-air missile system. Iranian media also published a video of the purported wreckage of an MQ-9. The videos could be independently confirmed.

As of last week, the U.S. had lost nearly 30 MQ-9s in the conflict with Iran, but Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Kenneth S. Wilsbach has called the MQ-9 the “most valuable player” during Operation Epic Fury. A CENTCOM spokesperson did not comment on Iran’s claim of downing an American MQ-9 during the latest tit-for-tat.

By May 26, the military situation had quieted down, though the two sides still traded accusations.

In a statement, Iran’s foreign ministry called the U.S. strikes “aggressive and unjustified actions.” The U.S. military insists its actions were taken in “self-defense.”