Two U.S. officials said the U.S. military strikes were in direct response to what they described Tuesday as 24 hours of missile, drone and small boat launches carried out by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps near the Strait of Hormuz. NBC reported.
The IRGC launched multiple surface-to-air missiles while the U.S. had aircraft flying in the area, the officials said. They said no U.S. aircraft were hit. The drones and small boats were capable of laying mines that could threaten U.S. ships and aircraft, the officials said.
The U.S. strikes were “very limited” and “very precise,” one of the officials said.
The attacks came even as Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters in India that a deal could be finalized in “a couple of days,” and that the negotiators were down to “disagreements over a word, a sentence.”
But Iran, which has been more guarded on the progress in the talks, issued a strongly worded statement Tuesday denouncing the U.S. strikes that it said contravened the seven-week pause in fighting.
