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A U.S. official, speaking anonymously, reported to The Hill on Wednesday that the U.S. military shot down four Iranian one-way attack drones and targeted a ground control station in Bandar Abbas that was about to launch a fifth.
Bandar Abbas is a port city on the southern coast of the nation, located on the Persian Gulf, News.Az reports, citing The Hill.
The Iranian drones posed a threat around the Strait of Hormuz, the key waterway that the Iranian regime has effectively choked off.
“These actions were measured, purely defensive, and intended to maintain the ceasefire,” the U.S. official said.
The strikes come as President Trump maintained on Wednesday that Iran wants to strike a deal but offered a few details of what’s in the potential deal to end the war in the Middle East.
The president said that Iran was “negotiating on fumes.”
“They are starting to give us the things they have to give us, and if they do, that’s great, and if they won’t, then the man on my left will have to finish them off,” Trump said during the Cabinet meeting.
Iranian state media published what it said was a memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Iran, including the U.S. lifting its Navy blockade on Iranian ports and withdrawing U.S. service members near Iran. But the White House pushed back, saying it was a “complete fabrication.”
The strikes were reported earlier by Reuters.
U.S. forces conducted “defensive strikes” in southern Iran on Monday, with U.S. Central Command (Centcom) stating they were intended “to protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces.” Centcom said Iranian boats were attempting to lay mines in the Strait of Hormuz.
During the Cabinet meeting, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that “there’s been some progress” toward an agreement with Tehran.
“We’ll see over the next few hours and days whether progress could be made,” Rubio, who is also Trump’s national security adviser, said.
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