Newsletters
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced that it had shot down a U.S.-made MQ-1 unmanned aerial vehicle over the western skies of the Strait of Hormuz, after Iranian media reported that two fishing boats had come under a U.S. drone attack.
According to Iran’s Hormozgan governor’s office, two boats were attacked by a U.S. drone near Kergan Pier, and search-and-rescue teams are working to find the missing fishermen. Following the attack, the IRGC said Iran’s air defense system had detected and struck an MQ-1, following an earlier claim that it had also shot down an MQ-1 over the Strait of Hormuz.
Military activity around the Strait of Hormuz continues to disrupt commercial shipping through one of the world’s most important energy routes.
Shipping traffic through the strait has fallen sharply amid the escalating conflict, with only four commodity vessels transiting the waterway on Monday, down from 10 the previous day and far below the pre-war average of 125 daily transits.
The decline follows a series of attacks involving Iran, the United States and commercial vessels in and around the Gulf. Iran claimed to have attacked 10 ships near the strait after U.S. forces destroyed five Iranian oil tankers.
Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA), an Iran-established body that oversees passage requests but is not internationally recognized as an authority over the Strait of Hormuz, also issued an updated list of 77 vessels accused of violating Iranian protocols, warning of possible fines, detention, or confiscation.
The reported MQ-1 shootdown follows a series of recent confrontations involving U.S. unmanned systems around the Strait of Hormuz. Last week, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said it had captured a U.S. autonomous underwater vehicle at the entrance to the strait.
The vehicle was identified as a Dive-LD, a 19-foot unmanned submersible developed by California-based defense company Anduril and designed for missions including mine countermeasures, seabed mapping, intelligence gathering and inspections of underwater infrastructure.
The U.S. military acknowledged the loss but downplayed its significance, saying the vehicle had malfunctioned more than a day earlier while surveying regional waters.
The capture came on the same day Iran reported shooting down a U.S. MQ-1 over the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian media reported that the drone was detected, tracked and destroyed by Iran’s air defense network over the strategic waterway.
Set as preferred source
Set as preferred source
2 min read
1 min read
