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Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed it shot down a US-made MQ-9 unmanned aerial vehicle over Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz, saying it was the 52nd MQ-9 drone it had brought down.
The IRGC said its air defense system detected and struck the drone at 2:29 a.m. local time over the skies of Qeshm Island. The claim came amid a series of Iranian reports of U.S. drones being brought down around the strategic waterway.
Iran’s official IRNA news agency had also reported hearing explosions overnight near Qeshm Island but provided no further details on their cause.
The latest claim followed an IRGC announcement a day earlier that Iran had shot down a U.S-made MQ-1 drone over the western skies of the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian authorities made the claim after reports that two fishing boats had come under a U.S. drone attack near Kergan Pier.
During the day, the IRGC also claimed that three MQ-1 drones had been intercepted and "destroyed" near the Strait of Hormuz, describing them as the fifth drones it had downed in recent days. The force attributed the shootdowns to a newly deployed advanced air defense system.
The fresh claims came as the Strait of Hormuz remains a flashpoint in the U.S-Iran conflict, with military forces from both sides increasingly confronting each other around the strategic waterway.
U.S. forces destroyed two Iranian small boats Monday after they attempted to seize a U.S. Navy unmanned surface vessel near Kargan and Larak Island. Iran’s IRGC Navy also claimed Sept. 10 that it had struck a U.S. unmanned surveillance vessel in the strait.
The clashes have unfolded as commercial traffic through the waterway remains sharply reduced. Only four vessels crossed the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, according to shipping data cited by Reuters, compared with a 10-day average of 18.
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