President Donald Trump has said United States forces carried out what he called minor strikes on Iranian air defences on Friday, hours after Iranian state media reported explosions on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz.

Speaking to reporters in West Palm Beach, Florida, Trump said Iranian forces had built a limited antiaircraft device and that American units knocked it out in about 15 minutes, perhaps five. He framed the action as part of a pattern of small strikes rather than a new major campaign.

Iranian state media said the sound of two explosions was heard in the Suza area of Qeshm, a large island that sits on the oil shipping choke point disrupted since the US Iran war began earlier this year. Iran's state broadcaster also aired an army claim that Iranian air defences had intercepted and destroyed an American MQ9 drone over the island. US Central Command, asked about reports of explosions, described the wider situation as relatively calm and declined further public comment.

Friday's action is the first publicly claimed American strike since Republicans suffered a heavy midterm defeat that Trump and other Republicans have linked in part to the Iran war and higher fuel prices. It also follows limited American strikes earlier in the week around Qeshm, Hengam and the nearby mainland near Bandar Abbas that Washington had called defensive.

Diplomatic tracks remain active even as the military signalling continues. Trump said there had been a lot of progress in talks with Tehran, without releasing details of any draft terms. The mix of another limited strike near Hormuz and renewed talk of negotiation keeps markets and regional governments watching whether the week ends in escalation or in a narrower bargaining window.