US military targets Iranian defense system in latest round of limited strikes

The U.S. launched new defensive strikes against Iran targeting the country’s air defense systems, President Trump said on Friday, describing the strikes as “minor.”

The U.S. military previously struck Iran on Monday, just a day before the midterms, targeting Iran’s Qeshm Island, home to an Iranian naval base and in the critical Strait of Hormuz. Trump had previously said he would not strike Iran until after the midterms .

Iranian state media reported explosions on Qeshm Island on Friday, according to the Associated Press, and posted on social media that the Iranian army had shot down a U.S. drone over Qeshm.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran Army announced that an MQ-9 drone belonging to what it called the aggressive American enemy was hit and brought down over Qeshm,” state media said on the social platform X.

The strikes ahead of the midterms were not publicly acknowledged by the Pentagon, which had not disclosed any attacks on Iranian targets since early September.

Friday’s strikes mark the first since the midterm elections, in which the war was a major issue for voters.

The final Reuters/Ipsos survey ahead of the midterms found that just 33 percent of Americans approved of the Iran war, while 62 percent disapproved.

After the Republicans’ election wipeout — in which the GOP lost at least eight Senate seats and dozens of House seats — many in the party blamed the Iran war for losses, including Vice President Vance.

“The reason we lost is the war,” Vance wrote in a long social media post after the election.

“Any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there,” he added.

Trump seemed to agree with Vance and admitted in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that the war was part of the reason for the party’s fate.

Even Iran chimed in after the election, with its speaker of parliament writing on X, “Americans said NO TO WAR.”

The war, now in its ninth month, was projected by the president and his administration to last only a few weeks when it began in February. But negotiations have fallen apart between the two sides more than once, and at the heart of them is the critical Strait of Hormuz. Iranian attacks in the strait throughout the war sent gas and diesel prices surging worldwide.

The U.S. recorded its highest-ever Election Day average gas price Tuesday as voters went to the polls.