IRGC downs MQ-9 near Strait of Hormuz as Iran responds to US aggression

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) says it shot down an American MQ-9 drone near the Strait of Hormuz amid intensifying military clashes triggered by US aggression and repeated violations of a ceasefire.

A General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper was intercepted and destroyed over the city of Jam in Iran's Bushehr Province during ongoing military confrontations near the strategic Strait of Hormuz, said the IRGC in a statement on Wednesday.

“During the ongoing aerial engagements in the Strait of Hormuz, an MQ-9 drone that intended to approach and intervene in the battle zone from the skies over the northern Persian Gulf was struck and destroyed by fire from the heroic fighters of the IRGC's modern air defense forces in the skies over the city of Jam in Bushehr Province,” said the IRGC in its statement.

The downing came as Iran powerfully responded to American attack on Iranian assets near the Strait of Hormuz following the crash of a US Army Apache helicopter.

Separately, Arab media outlets reported fresh explosions in Bahrain, with local sources saying that as many as 16 blasts were heard following the Iranian attacks.

Earlier in the day, the US Navy's Fifth Fleet came under Iranian missile and drone attack. Iran also launched drone and missile strikes against US military facilities in Jordan, Bahrain, and Kuwait in the early hours of Wednesday.

A informed Iranian military source said that initial assessments of satellite imagery and intelligence from field sources indicate significant success in an operation carried out in the early morning hours.

Based on preliminary collected data, 70% of the planned targets in the operation were successfully hit, the source added.

Iran launches concerted retaliatory strikes against American military targets after fresh US aggression

Iran

In a statement, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) claimed targeting Iranian air-defense positions, surveillance radar installations, and command facilities near the Strait of Hormuz.

As Iran responded in force, the CENTCOM said it had "completed self-defense strikes".

"The operation was a proportional response to recent attacks on US forces and international commercial ships transiting regional waters," the statement said.

"US forces remain vigilant and postured to defend against unjustified Iranian aggression," the statement said, framing repeated aggression and provocative measures as self-defense.

Images, however, emerged showing an attack by US forces on drinking water reservoirs in the Bemani district of Sirik county in Iran's southern Hormozgan province, according to local reports.

According to the managing director of the province's Water and Wastewater Company, US attacks have destroyed drinking water distribution infrastructure serving approximately 20,000 people .

The attacks damaged two concrete reservoirs with capacities of 500 and 2,000 cubic meters, along with related mechanical facilities, serving the town of Kuhestak and 10 villages in the Bamani district, the official said.

Water supply to residents in these areas is currently cut off, and authorities are working on alternative supply methods.

"Unfortunately, following this attack, access to clean water for 20,000 honorable people in this region has been cut off," the official said. "Given the air temperature of 45 to 50 degrees, conditions for residents of this district have become very difficult and critical."

Iranian officials emphasized that the latest confrontation is part of a broader pattern of US military intervention in the region, stressing that the Islamic Republic’s actions are defensive measures aimed at safeguarding the country's sovereignty and responding to foreign attacks.

Iran's Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, which coordinates the IRGC's and the Army's operations, described the overall counterstrikes as a “powerful [retaliatory] assault.”

The headquarters likewise warned that if the United States repeated any aggression against the Islamic Republic, “heavier and more extensive strikes” would be carried out against a predetermined list of targets across the region.

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