Large explosions were heard Saturday evening in the southern Iranian coastal cities of Bandar Lengeh and Bandar Kong, as well as on Qeshm Island, with plumes of smoke rising over Bandar Kong following reported missile launches toward vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. Local reports did not identify which ships were targeted or confirm the cause of the blasts, and neither Washington nor Tehran immediately commented on whether US airstrikes had targeted Iranian missile launchers along the coast.
The blasts came hours after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps released footage claiming its air defenses intercepted and destroyed a US MQ-1 Predator reconnaissance and combat drone over Qeshm Island, the second straight day Iranian forces claimed to have downed an MQ-1 near the strait and the 17th overall. Earlier Saturday, Iran’s navy and the IRGC also claimed fires broke out on three oil tankers that struck naval mines in a restricted zone east of the Strait of Hormuz while sailing with their tracking systems switched off.
