Iran's Revolutionary Guard says it shot down US MQ-9 drone east of Strait of Hormuz

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it shot down a US MQ-9 Reaper drone east of the Strait of Hormuz on 2 November, using what it described as an advanced air defense system, according to posts on X relaying the claim ¹².

The IRGC released footage that it said shows Iranian forces bringing down the American drone over the eastern part of the strait, according to a post by @FelastoryMedia ². Another account, @Devrajjoshi1947, said the footage showed a US Air Force MQ-9A Reaper being intercepted by a surface-to-air missile earlier that day ³. The posts did not identify the specific air defense system, and the footage itself could not be independently verified ¹²³.

All three accounts presented the shootdown as an IRGC claim, and none cited confirmation from the US military or any other independent party ¹²³. The MQ-9 Reaper is a remotely piloted aircraft, so no crew would have been aboard, and none of the reports mentioned casualties ²³.

Other accounts circulating alongside the claim said the aircraft was the 55th US MQ-9 destroyed during the fighting, and that the IRGC also said it had brought down two American MQM-170 aerial target drones over southern Qeshm Island. These additional claims could not be verified.

The reported shootdown came amid heightened military activity around the strait. Reports earlier the same evening described US strikes on Iran's Qeshm Island, which sits near the Strait of Hormuz, and explosions were reported during the day in the port city of Bandar Abbas as well as in Kermanshah and Omidiyeh. A day earlier, the IRGC was reported to have attacked commercial ships in the strait.

Elsewhere in the region, Houthi missile strikes were reported on 1 November at an industrial site in Riyadh and near Dammam in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province. The Strait of Hormuz is a major route for global oil shipments, and incidents there tend to draw wide attention.

It remains unclear whether the US military has acknowledged losing a drone, where precisely the aircraft was when it was reportedly hit, and whether any wreckage has been shown. The location of such incidents has been disputed between Washington and Tehran in the past, with the two sides offering differing accounts of whose airspace was involved.