US officials acknowledged having launched strikes on the Iranian island of Qeshm, in the Strait of Hormuz, and told CBS, the BBC’s US partner, that the operation was limited and responded to fire from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) at a US aircraft.

Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported several explosions on the island on Monday. According to The New York Times, US Central Command (Centcom) has a plan to strike Iran as early as Wednesday, after the midterm elections, when three aircraft carriers will be in the region. Some cabinet members want more time for sanctions and a US blockade, saying that economic pressure would eventually bring down Iran’s government; other officials see little prospect of its collapse without further strikes. Trump told Axios he was in no rush: “Either way, we will do something, but there is no rush. We have weakened them financially.” In an interview with Fox News, he said the US “may need to strike Pickaxe,” a site linked to Iran’s nuclear program.