President Donald Trump said on Friday that the U.S. military carried out new limited strikes on Iran, targeting an Iranian air defense system, the Associated Press reported. Iranian state media reported the sound of two explosions in the Suza area of Qeshm Island, which sits in the Strait of Hormuz, the crucial waterway for oil shipments.
Trump described the military action as "minor" in an exchange with reporters shortly after arriving in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Friday evening. "They built a little bit of an anti-aircraft device and we knocked it out in about 15 minutes, maybe five," he said. Trump did not offer further details about the target.
U.S. officials have reported that most of Iran's air defense systems were destroyed or severely degraded during a June 2025 bombardment by Israel and in the early stages of the current conflict, and have assessed that Iran would try to rebuild them over time. The U.S. military also reported carrying out what it described as defensive strikes on Monday, when explosions were heard on the islands of Qeshm and Hengam and in the nearby mainland area of Bandar Abbas.
Friday's strikes are the first since Trump's Republican Party was dealt a stunning repudiation in Tuesday's midterm elections, losing both chambers of Congress — a setback stoked in part by voter dissatisfaction with the president's execution of the conflict and elevated fuel prices, a byproduct of the war. In the days since, Trump has vacillated between threatening to "destroy" Iran and suggesting a resolution to the war is near.
Diplomacy continued alongside the military action. Earlier Friday, two Middle East government officials said Iran was reviewing proposals presented by chief mediator Qatar aimed at addressing differences with the United States about Tehran's nuclear program — though Tehran remains unwilling to engage in negotiations until Washington agrees to several core conditions, including ending the U.S. blockade on Iranian ports, lifting sanctions, unfreezing assets and issuing compensation for war damage. Trump said Friday that the contacts continue: "We are talking to Iran. We have been."
