The U.S. said Wednesday that it launched new airstrikes on Iran and took out four drones even as a broader ceasefire still holds in the nearly three-month old conflict.
The airstrikes struck a military site along the southern coast of Iran that was deemed a threat to American forces and commercial maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, a U.S. official told POLITICO.
The strikes were accompanied by U.S. forces downing four Iranian drones that also posed a threat, said the official, granted anonymity to provide details on strikes that were first reported by Reuters.
“U.S. forces also struck an Iranian ground control station in Bandar Abbas that was about to launch a fifth drone,” the official said. “These actions were measured, purely defensive, and intended to maintain the ceasefire.”
The attacks come amid the ongoing negotiations to end the U.S. and Israeli joint military campaign in Iran, which has led to thousands of deaths and spiked oil prices worldwide. The larger ceasefire between the sides continues to hold, despite the strikes in the Arabian Gulf coast over the past several days.
President Donald Trump told reporters Wednesday a deal could be reached, but hinted that if a deal doesn’t come together, “We will just have to finish the job.”
The strikes mark the second U.S. attack in Iran in a week. On Monday, the U.S. said it conducted “self-defense strikes” in southern Iran on several targets, including missile launch sites and Iranian boats attempting to plant mines in the Strait of Hormuz.
The president rejected a proposal on Wednesday that would see Iran and Oman, a key facilitator of behind-the-scenes talks, oversee maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz — a critical passageway through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil travels.
Trump insisted that Iran should not have any control over the waterway, which he wants to be treated as an international body of water, while adding that he wants the U.S. to “watch over it.”