TEHRAN, IRAN.- Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, that it shot down a United States MQ-9 Reaper drone east of the Strait of Hormuz and captured a fourth US reconnaissance drone intact, a new round of claims in the escalating drone war around the strategic waterway. Iranian state media also reported five explosions in quick succession on Qeshm Island and further blasts in the coastal city of Bandar Lengeh, hours after reports that the United States had carried out a fresh limited strike on the island.
According to Iranian state broadcaster Press TV, the IRGC Aerospace Force said it tracked and destroyed a US MQ-9 drone east of the strait using a newly developed air defence system, and brought down two MQM-170 reconnaissance drones south of Qeshm Island using electronic warfare, taking over their control systems without physically destroying them. Separately, the IRGC Navy claimed it captured a fourth US MQM-170 reconnaissance and decoy drone intact west of the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has published images it says show the interception of a US drone; the United States has not confirmed any drone losses.
What the United States says happened on Qeshm
The US side of the story, reported by The Wall Street Journal and Axios citing American officials, is different in emphasis: an Iranian surface-to-air missile was fired at a US aircraft over waters east of the strait, and a US fighter jet then destroyed the missile launcher on Qeshm Island in self-defence. US officials described the strikes as defensive and limited, aimed at stopping Iran from attacking commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz, and said they were deliberately kept small and unannounced so as not to signal a return to major combat operations. President Donald Trump has confirmed the strike on Qeshm and called it a "minor attack."
The claims arrive as Iran says its plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world's oil flowed in peacetime, can start within two days if Washington meets its seven demands, including ending the war, unfreezing Iranian assets and lifting oil sanctions. The United States and Iran have been at war since late February, and the latest exchange shows how the fight over the strait is now being waged as much with drones and competing claims as with missiles.
Read more on The Wire Post: Iran Says It Shot Down Two US LUCAS Attack Drones Over Bandar Khamir and Donald Trump Confirms US Strike on Iran's Qeshm Island.
Sources: Press TV, IRNA, Mathrubhumi, The National, Wall Street Journal via Indian Express, Axios via The National, November 3, 2026.