Explosions were heard in southern Iran’s Qeshm and Bandar Khamir in recent hours, according to the country’s Fars News Agency.
“The nature of the explosions is unclear,” the report on Telegram said, adding that they may be connected to warning shots fired at the Strait of Hormuz.
It noted that, in the past few days, “at least six advanced US enemy reconnaissance drones have been hunted down or captured by our country’s armed forces fighters in the skies over the Strait of Hormuz.”
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said its electronic warfare systems brought down two more US MQM-170 reconnaissance drones over Qeshm Island, raising its claimed total of that type there to six.
In statements released Thursday night, the IRGC said the fifth and sixth drones were forced down in the island’s airspace by systems of its Aerospace Force. Iranian state media and Press TV repeated the claim on Friday.
The IRGC earlier said it had brought down two MQM-170 drones south of Qeshm on Monday night, taking its claimed total of that model to four before the latest announcements.
The force also said its air defenses destroyed a US MQ-9 drone over the eastern Strait of Hormuz and called it the 55th MQ-9 it had brought down. Those figures come only from Iranian statements.
The United States has not publicly confirmed the latest losses. Independent verification of crash sites or wreckage was not available.
Qeshm sits near the Strait of Hormuz, where shipping and military surveillance have been under heavy pressure since the US-Israeli war with Iran earlier this year.
