The US says that one of its warships brought down an Iranian drone in the Strait of Hormuz.
As tensions grow between the two countries, Donald Trump announced that the USS Boxer, an amphibious assault ship, “destroyed” the drone which came within 1,000 yards of the warship and ignored several calls to stand down.
The incident comes “almost exactly one month after Iran shot down an American drone,” CNN notes.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Revealing the incident, Donald Trump said: “This is the latest of many provocative and hostile actions by Iran against vessels operating in international waters.”
He said Washington “reserves the right to defend our personnel, facilities and interests”, and “calls upon all nations to condemn Iran’s attempts to disrupt freedom of navigation and global commerce”.
He also called “on other nations to protect their ships as they go through the Strait and to work with us in the future”.
The New York Times says the development “refuels tensions as both countries dig in”.
A State Department spokesman has told Reuters: “The United States strongly condemns the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy’s continued harassment of vessels and interference with safe passage in and around the Strait of Hormuz.”
But Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said: “We have no information about losing a drone.”
After Iran recently shot down a US drone that it said was flying over Iranian waters, Zarif said the two countries had been “a few minutes away” from conflict after Trump called off a planned retaliatory missile strike at the last minute. The Iranian said: “No war with Iran would be a short war.”
CNBC explains that the Boxer is “part of a group of Navy ships that was in the strait, located between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, as part of an increased US military presence in the region”.
-
Political cartoons for December 6Cartoons Saturday’s political cartoons include a pardon for Hernandez, word of the year, and more
-
Pakistan: Trump’s ‘favourite field marshal’ takes chargeIn the Spotlight Asim Munir’s control over all three branches of Pakistan’s military gives him ‘sweeping powers’ – and almost unlimited freedom to use them
-
Codeword: December 6, 2025The daily codeword puzzle from The Week
-
‘These accounts clearly are designed as a capitalist alternative’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Boat strike footage rattles some lawmakersSpeed Read ‘Disturbing’ footage of the Sept. 2 attack on an alleged drug-trafficking boat also shows the second strike that killed two survivors who were clinging to the wreckage
-
Is a Putin-Modi love-in a worry for the West?Today’s Big Question The Indian leader is walking a ‘tightrope’ between Russia and the United States
-
Trump pardons Texas Democratic congressmanspeed read Rep. Henry Cuellar was charged with accepting foreign bribes tied to Azerbaijan and Mexico
-
‘It is their greed and the pollution from their products that hurt consumers’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Trump targets ‘garbage’ Somalis ahead of ICE raidsSpeed Read The Department of Homeland Security will launch an immigration operation targeting Somali immigrants in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area
-
Hegseth blames ‘fog of war’ for potential war crimespeed read ‘I did not personally see survivors,’ Hegseth said at a Cabinet meeting
-
Is a Reform-Tory pact becoming more likely?Today’s Big Question Nigel Farage’s party is ahead in the polls but still falls well short of a Commons majority, while Conservatives are still losing MPs to Reform
