Iran’s Revolutionary Guard says it shot down a US MQ-1 drone over Qeshm Island

The IRGC's framing — a "new advanced" system and alleged nocturnal reconnaissance probing — reads as much as a domestic capability signal as an operational claim, and the explicit link to the Strait of Hormuz ties a single downing to the world's most sensitive oil chokepoint. Because only one side's account is given, the significance sits less in the shootdown itself than in the escalation narrative around Hormuz monitoring. Whether independent confirmation emerges, and whether the reconnaissance tempo the IRGC describes continues, is the open question.