TEHRAN / WASHINGTON — Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said its forces brought down three US drones and captured a fourth near the Strait of Hormuz on Monday night, November 2 — the same night US aircraft struck Iran's Qeshm Island — in a set of claims the United States has not confirmed. The IRGC Aerospace Force said electronic-warfare systems brought down two US MQM-170 reconnaissance drones south of Qeshm Island and captured them, bringing to four the number of drones of that type it says it has seized, the Tasnim news agency reported.
Source: Tasnim via The Insight International
In a separate statement, the IRGC Navy said it had captured a fourth US MQM-170 drone intact west of the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, after its electronic-warfare unit located and identified the aircraft, took control of its guidance and control systems and brought it down safely without physical damage, Iran's state news agency IRNA reported. Iranian authorities alleged the drone had been deployed to map Iran's air-defence systems along the Persian Gulf coast and over Qeshm Island. The MQM-170 Outlaw, built by US-based Griffon Aerospace, is a target and decoy drone designed to simulate airborne threats, test air-defence networks and train personnel.
Source: IRNA via Indian Economic Observer
The drone claims were announced hours after explosions were reported on Qeshm Island and US officials confirmed limited, defensive strikes there. Awaaz Punjab reported that operation — and President Trump's comments playing down a return to war — as it emerged. Read: US strikes Iran's Qeshm Island near Strait of Hormuz
The MQ-9 claim: a '55th' Reaper, east of the strait
The IRGC also said its Aerospace Force intercepted and destroyed a US MQ-9 Reaper drone east of the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, describing it as the 55th MQ-9 destroyed by its forces since the war began in late February, according to IRGC-affiliated media cited by Iran International. The Guards said the operation was carried out by a modern air-defence system under the country's integrated air-defence network, the Mehr News Agency reported. Iran's parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf's statement on Tuesday — that a deal with Washington remains out of reach — also noted the MQ-9 claim in passing; it has not been independently confirmed.
Source: Mehr News Agency / IRGC media via Iran International
Qalibaf told Iran's parliament on Tuesday that Tehran had given Washington a 'strong and rational response' through mediators and that 'the ball is in the US court' — while a senior Iranian official told Reuters the two sides remain far from a deal. Read: Iran-US deal still out of reach, Tehran says
What Washington has — and has not — said
There was no immediate confirmation from the US military of Monday night's drone claims, Iran International reported, and the claims could not be independently verified. The silence contrasts with Thursday, October 29, when US Central Command publicly rejected a similar IRGC claim to have captured an MQM-170 near Hormuz, calling the report false and saying the IRGC had 'repeatedly lied out of desperation' in recent weeks. That history is why Awaaz Punjab is reporting Monday's announcements strictly as Iranian claims: the IRGC has announced drone captures before, and the only on-record US response to this type of claim so far has been a denial.
Source: Iran International via Life News Agency; US Central Command statement of Oct 29
What is solid
- The IRGC's Aerospace Force and Navy did issue these statements on Monday night, November 2, carried by Tasnim, IRNA and Mehr and reported by multiple independent outlets.
- US aircraft struck Qeshm Island the same night — US officials described those strikes to the Wall Street Journal, CNN and Reuters as limited and defensive, following what one official said was an Iranian surface-to-air missile fired at a US aircraft.
- On October 29 the US military denied a previous, similar IRGC MQM-170 capture claim and called it false.
What is only claimed
- Whether any US drone was actually downed or captured on Monday night: Iran says four MQM-170s are now in its hands and a 55th MQ-9 was destroyed; Washington has not confirmed any of it, and no wreckage imagery has been independently verified.
- The alleged mission of the captured drone — mapping Iranian air defences — is an Iranian allegation, not an established fact.
Background: an eight-month war fought over one strait
The claims land in the middle of the US-Iran war that began on February 28, which has sharply reduced traffic through the Strait of Hormuz — the waterway that normally carries about a fifth of the world's crude oil and liquefied natural gas. Qeshm, Iran's largest island, sits at the strait's western entrance off the port city of Bandar Abbas, which is why both sides keep fighting over the skies above it: the US says Monday's strike targeted radar systems and missile launch platforms threatening shipping and its own aircraft, while Iran presents the drone claims as proof its air defences can still reach American aircraft. On Monday, President Donald Trump played down the prospect of fresh strikes after Tuesday's US midterm elections, answering 'no' when asked if he was considering them, and wrote on Truth Social that 'Iran wants a settlement, as soon as possible. It could happen!' At the same time, Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said in Tehran that 'the ball is in the US court,' and messages between the two sides continue through Qatari mediators.
Source: Reuters / Wall Street Journal via FXStreet
Oil, shipping — and the Gulf's Punjabi and Indian workers
Markets moved on the combined news of the strikes and the fading deal hopes: by 0744 GMT on Tuesday, Brent crude futures had risen $1.84, or 1.76 percent, to $106.61 a barrel — yaani about $106 and 61 cents for every barrel — and US West Texas Intermediate was up $1.60, or 1.66 percent, at $98.06 a barrel, Reuters reported, after both benchmarks had fallen more than 7 percent on Monday. For the lakhs of Punjabi and Indian workers who live across the Gulf states — in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain — every exchange over Hormuz is watched closely, because the strait decides oil income, flight routes and, in a wider escalation, their safety. No Gulf government reported any threat to civilian workers from Monday night's exchange, and shipping through the strait remains sharply restricted rather than fully stopped.
Source: Reuters via KWSN
What happens next
The next test of the IRGC's account is Washington's response: if US Central Command issues the same kind of denial it gave on October 29, the claims will stand as disputed; if it stays silent or confirms a loss, the balance of the air war over Hormuz changes. Either way, the drone announcements show Tehran wants the Qeshm night read two ways at once — as proof it can hurt US forces, and as leverage while it tells Washington, through Qalibaf and the mediators in Doha, that the next move on a deal is America's. With the US midterm elections being held on Tuesday, both governments are signalling and striking at the same time, and the strait — and the oil price — will react to whichever signal turns out to be real.