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The U.S. military shot down four Iranian one-way attack drones and struck a ground control station inside Iran on Wednesday that the military assessed as presenting a direct threat to U.S. forces and commercial shipping, according to a U.S. official.
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The strikes were near the city of Bandar Abbas in southern Iran, and the official described them as defensive because the drones presented a threat to U.S. forces near the Strait of Hormuz and to commercial shipping that was transiting the area.
The ground control station in Bandar Abbas was targeted because a fifth drone was about to launch from there, according to the U.S. official.
The official said the attacks were limited and do not represent a resumption of major combat operations against Iran.
The drones, which the official said belonged to the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, did not hit any military or civilian target.
Iranian state TV reported on Telegram that three explosions were heard east of Bandar Abbas at 1:30 a.m. local time, which triggered air defenses in the city for a few minutes. The cause and exact location of the explosions were being investigated, state TV said in the post.
At a Cabinet meeting earlier Wednesday, President Donald Trump said no one is going to be allowed to control the Strait of Hormuz, the key waterway through which some 20% of the world’s oil flowed before the war.
“The strait is going to be open to everybody,” he said, adding, “Nobody is going to control it.”
A U.S. official told NBC News on Monday that the U.S. military carried out “very limited” and “very precise” attacks against Iran after a series of missile, drone and small boat launches by the IRGC.
On Tuesday, Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that American forces have “committed a violation of the ceasefire in the Hormuz region over the past 48 hours.”
The IRGC vowed to “respond decisively to any violation of the ceasefire” and the Wednesday attacks are likely to put additional pressure on the fragile ceasefire.
Courtney Kube is a correspondent covering national security and the military for the NBC News Investigative Unit.
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