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Updated November 2 at 9:36 p.m. EST: CNN separately reported limited Qeshm strikes, citing three U.S. officials. The original report and the 9:25 p.m. N12 update remain below.

Updated November 2 at 9:25 p.m. EST with a separate N12 report on the target and circumstances, citing an unnamed senior U.S. official.

The United States has conducted strikes on some Iranian targets in the Strait of Hormuz that a U.S. official described as defensive, The Associated Press reported in a news alert Monday evening.

The AP alert did not name the official, identify the targets, say when the strikes occurred or provide casualty figures. “Defensive” is the official’s description of the strikes.

The alert did not mention Qeshm Island and did not contain confirmation from U.S. Central Command. It did not establish that the strikes marked a resumption of the major U.S. military campaign against Iran.

In a separate account, CNN reported that the U.S. military carried out limited strikes on Qeshm Island on Monday, citing three U.S. officials who described the action as defensive and intended to protect U.S. assets in the region.

One official told CNN the action followed Iran firing at a U.S. aircraft. Another described it as a defensive response to Iranian use of surface-to-air missiles against U.S. assets. A person familiar with the matter told CNN the administration kept the action under wraps to avoid overstating the defensive move.

CNN’s account corroborates reports of limited strikes on Qeshm, but does not confirm the destroyed-launcher detail reported by N12 below. It does not provide casualty figures, establish aircraft losses or include named confirmation from CENTCOM.

Separately, N12 reported, in an account by Barak Ravid citing an unnamed senior U.S. official, that an American fighter jet destroyed a surface-to-air missile launcher on Qeshm Island after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps fired an anti-aircraft missile from it. The official described the strike as self-defense.

Those details come from N12’s report and have not been independently confirmed by JBizNews. They were not included in the AP alert, and there is no confirmation from CENTCOM in the reports cited here.

In a separate earlier Qeshm report, Reuters cited the Wall Street Journal, which cited U.S. officials, as reporting a strike on that island. The Journal described a series of limited strikes in recent weeks that were smaller in scale and deliberately kept secret to avoid signaling an intent to resume the major campaign.

The AP alert does not establish whether the strikes it describes are the same operations covered in the Qeshm report.

This is a developing story.

JBizNews Desk | Washington
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