Wire reporting: (AP, via Taipei Times)

The United States carried out limited strikes on Iranian targets in the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, a U.S. official said, as Iranian state media reported explosions on Qeshm and Hengam islands and near Bandar Abbas^1,2,14.

CBS News, citing multiple U.S. officials, said the action followed two Monday incidents: Revolutionary Guards fire at an American fighter jet that returned fire, and a missile launched from Qeshm that officials said threatened shipping². Korea Herald said the unnamed official described targeting Iranian forces using surface-to-air missiles against U.S. assets¹⁴.

The strikes were not announced publicly in the way earlier wartime attacks were, Taipei Times reported, and came on the eve of U.S. midterm elections after President Donald Trump had said Washington would not launch strikes on Iran before the vote^1,14. Vice President JD Vance, speaking before the official confirmation, said he and Trump felt fairly good about prospects for a negotiated settlement^1,14.

Iran's deputy foreign minister, Kazem Gharibabadi, said Tuesday that Tehran retained the right of legitimate self-defense until military aggression ended, according to CBS². Anchorage Daily News, carrying AP reporting, said Maj. Gen. Mohsen Rezaei wrote that the strait would not reopen until the United States addressed Iran's conditions, which have included lifting a naval blockade, waiving oil sanctions and a ceasefire that would include Lebanon^4,14.

Mediators have been trying to advance a framework in which Iran would halt attacks in the strait if the United States lifted its blockade on Iranian ports, according to regional officials cited by AP pickups^1,4. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pressed for further strikes after the U.S. elections in a weekend call, those officials said; Trump has alternated between threatening major attacks and talking about a deal^2,4.

What comes next is not established. CBS said Trump told Fox News that several sites in Iran still had to be taken care of, while also saying a deal could happen². Iranian state television quoted parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf as saying the ball was in America's court to prevent war⁴. Many later items in this cluster concern separate comments on U.S. aid to Israel rather than the Hormuz strikes^22,25.