US launches new targeted strikes on Iran as Trump claims progress in talks with Tehran

US military carried out what it said were limited new airstrikes in southern Iran on Friday night, further raising fears across the Middle East and among Gulf states sparked by the possible resumption of an all-out war, but Qatar and the US insisted that the negotiations for a diplomatic settlement are continuing.

US President Donald Trump told the media on Friday evening that a “minor” military action targeted Iranian air defence systems on Qeshm Island.

“They built a little bit of an anti-aircraft device and we knocked it out in about 15 minutes, maybe five," Trump said.

Trump insisted that “we are not fighting” and made it clear that in parallel with the “minor strike,” the US has made “a lot of progress with Iran” with the ongoing negotiations spearheaded by chief mediator Qatar.

“We’re dealing with them now. They want to make a deal,” Trump said.

Iranian state-run media reported that two missiles hit the Suza area of Qeshm Island without identifying the targets or the damage, while locals went on social media reporting the explosions.

Earlier on Friday, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) claimed that it shot down a US military drone over southern Iran, but the US did not confirm the claim.

Friday’s strike is the first since the Democratic Party scored a major victory in midterm elections, with officials and analysts tying the result to voters' disagreement with Trump’s decision to enter into a war with Iran.

The attack follows another series of what the US military called defensive strikes on Monday, when explosions were heard on the islands of Qeshm and Hengam in the Strait of Hormuz and in the nearby mainland area of Bandar Abbas.

In an earlier speech in Florida on Friday, Trump appeared to defend his Iran war decision by stating that “if I allowed Iran to have a nuclear weapon, today there would be no Israel,” and that “Israel would have been wiped off the face of the Earth.”