WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump said the US military carried out new limited strikes on Iran, targeting an Iranian air defense system.
Iranian state media had reported the sound of two explosions in the Suza area of Qeshm Island, which is in the crucial waterway for oil shipments. Trump in an exchange with reporters described the military action as “minor.”
“They knocked out — they built a little bit of an anti-aircraft device and we knocked it out in about 15 minutes, maybe five,” Trump tells reporters shortly after arriving in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Trump doesn’t offer further details about the target. But US 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. US officials have assessed that Iran would try to rebuild them and other military infrastructure over time.
The strikes are the first since Trump’s Republican Party was dealt a stunning repudiation in Tuesday’s midterm elections in the US.
The electoral setback — Republicans lost both chambers of Congress — was stoked in part by voter dissatisfaction with Trump’s execution of the conflict and elevated fuel prices, a byproduct of the war that’s affected nearly every sector of the global economy.
In the days since Republicans’ shellacking at the polls, Trump has vacillated between threatening to “destroy” Iran and suggesting a resolution to the war is near.
Iran’s military is “stronger” and more motivated than it was when the United States and Israel started the war in February, Iranian state media reports, citing an army spokesman.
“Today, the Islamic Republic’s armed forces… having gained experience from direct confrontation with the United States and the Israeli regime, are on higher alert and are stronger than they were at the beginning of the war. They now possess greater motivation, commitment, and self-confidence,” Mohammad Akraminia says, according to the state news agency IRNA.
Meanwhile, Iran is negotiating a deal with Russia for the S-400 air defense system, the Telegraph reports, citing an Iranian official who says the Islamic Republic is “optimisitc” that Russian leader Vladimir Putin will green light the sale.
The official says that when Mohsen Rezaei met this week with Putin at the Kremlin, he brought a leader from supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei whose chief demand is that Russia supply Iran with weapons.
After a months-long naval blockade on Iran, the US military is setting up a task force to bolster Washington’s efforts to restrict Tehran’s movement of advanced weapons systems and other sanctioned material across its land borders and the Caspian Sea.
The announcement of the task force, which has not been previously reported, will be made later on Saturday by the US Central Command, according to a statement seen by Reuters ahead of its release.
Task Force Iron Gate, as it will be called, will be based in Tampa, Florida, and will coordinate with other US government agencies. Beyond the movement of weapons, the task force will also focus on dual-use and illegal revenue streams.
“Strengthening CENTCOM’s collaboration with US interagency partners will further constrain Iran’s ability to finance terrorism, rebuild weapons factories, and replenish their military,” Adm. Brad Cooper, the commander of the US military’s of Central Command, says in a statement.
Central Command estimates that its naval blockade has prevented Iran from exporting more than $25 billion in crude oil.
