IRGC Says It Took Down a 16th US MQ-1 Drone Near Qeshm Island

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps says it spotted, locked onto and destroyed an American MQ-1 reconnaissance drone over Qeshm Island in southern Iran, according to Fars News Agency. The IRGC credited an advanced air defense system for the intercept on Friday.

If the claim holds, it's the 16th MQ-1 the IRGC says Iranian forces have brought down. The statement didn't stop there: Tehran's military says it is watching US aerial traffic in the region around the clock, charting the drones' reconnaissance routes and flight patterns.

The shootdown claim arrived on a busy day of Iranian messaging. Supreme National Security Council deputy secretary Ali Bagheri said Tehran will no longer settle for Washington's 'paper commitments,' accusing the US of wrecking peace talks this year by breaking promises. Iranian Army spokesperson Mohammad Akraminia went further, saying any US attack on Tehran would be answered by strikes on American sites 'without geographic limits.'

Akraminia also tied the Strait of Hormuz to the standoff, saying renewed 'adventurism' won't reopen the waterway — it stays shut until Washington accepts Tehran's terms. That echoed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei's call last week to overhaul the military's target database.

The tension isn't confined to the air or the strait. The Financial Times reported that Iran-linked vessels, including sanctioned oil tankers and a fishing boat, went dark on tracking systems and looped over key fiber-optic cable routes in the Gulf of Oman, a pattern that fits mapping the cables or planting charges on them.

In Washington, the political ground is shifting too. Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren said Friday she'd 'team up' with any Republicans listening to the American people to end the war with Iran, writing 'End the war. Lower costs' on X. Democrats took both chambers in Tuesday's midterms, giving that push new weight.