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World

Iran claims it downed US MQ-9 drone over Strait of Hormuz; Washington silent

Iran's IRGC said its air defences intercepted a US MQ-9 over the Strait of Hormuz early Tuesday — a claim Washington has not addressed.

By Sarah Whitfield · · 1 min read

Editorial illustration of a surveillance drone over the Strait of Hormuz at dawn.
Illustration: Flip News (AI-generated)

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has claimed its air defences intercepted and destroyed a US MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Strait of Hormuz in the early hours of Tuesday.

The claim was carried by Iran’s state broadcaster IRIB and the semi-official Fars and Tasnim news agencies, and picked up by Al Jazeera’s liveblog and the Indian Express’s rolling US–Iran war coverage. According to Fars, the IRGC said the aircraft was brought down over the strategic waterway and described it as the 54th US MQ-9 it had destroyed — a figure that has not been independently verified.

The United States has not publicly responded to the claim. Iran has made similar announcements before: in September, Tehran said it had downed a US MQ-9 over Qeshm Island in the strait, a claim on which the US military did not comment.

The announcement lands amid the continuing Iran–US confrontation that began with US and Israeli airstrikes against Iran on 28 February 2026, after which Tehran retaliated with missile and drone attacks across the region and effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz to most commercial traffic, according to Anadolu Agency. A June memorandum of understanding between Washington and Tehran on freedom of navigation in the strait has stalled over security disagreements.

Sources: Al Jazeera liveblog, 20 Oct 2026 (claim carried via IRIB) · Indian Express live updates · Mehr News Agency · Anadolu Agency

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