Iran said on Tuesday that its air defences had responded to US military activity, after Washington announced strikes on targets inside the country despite an ongoing ceasefire and negotiations aimed at ending the war.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) warned against any violation of the ceasefire by the United States and insisted on Iran’s right to retaliate.
The IRGC said it had fired on a US RQ-4 drone and an F-35 fighter jet and had also detected a US MQ-9 Reaper drone.
Iranian news agencies Fars and Tasnim reported that a US MQ-9 drone had been downed.
Later on Tuesday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry accused the US of having committed a "gross" violations of the ceasefire over the past 48 hours, according to Tasnim.
The violations, which came amid diplomatic efforts, amounted to a breach of trust, the ministry said. It also referred to “several cases of piracy against Iranian commercial ships,” using Tehran’s term for the US naval blockade.
The US military said on Monday it had carried out strikes on southern Iran, targeting missile positions in the south of the country and attacking boats near the Strait of Hormuz that were allegedly laying mines in the strategic waterway.
The US military described the operations as “self-defence strikes” aimed at protecting troops from threats posed by the Iranian military.
It remained unclear whether the IRGC statement about firing on the US drone and fighter jet referred to those incidents or to new confrontations on Tuesday.
