By Phil Stewart and Steve Holland WASHINGTON, Nov 2 - The US carried out strikes on Iran's Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz, a US official said on Monday. The strikes, earlier reported by the Wall Street Journal, appeared to be limited and were not a resumption of major combat operations, the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Another official said the strikes were defensive measures against Iranians using surface-to-air missiles against US assets.
The Pentagon referred a request for comment to the US Central Command, which oversees American forces in the Middle East. CENTCOM did not respond to requests for comment. Earlier on Monday, Iranian state media outlet IRNA reported that there were several explosions onQeshm Island. The Journal reported that the attack was the latest in a series of strikes carried out by Washington in recent weeks. Fox News, citing officials, said the strikes were defensive and carried out in response to Iran firing at a US aircraft.
In recent weeks, President Donald Trumphinted at renewing attacks on Iran after the US midterm elections on Tuesday. But after a speech at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on Monday, he indicated he might be thinking otherwise. (Reporting by Phil Stewart, Steve Holland and Jasper Ward in Washington; Editing by Christian Martinez, Donna Bryson and Thomas Derpinghaus)
Al-Monitor's Reuters report names the US as the attacker in plain active voice. It attributes the 'defensive' description to anonymous US officials and does not state it as fact. Its one weakness is sourcing. The report lets unnamed US officials supply every account of why the strikes happened. It gives Iran only a state media line about explosions and carries no Iranian response to the US claim that Iranians fired first.
One side gets the space
Minor
“Another official said the strikes were defensive measures against Iranians using surface-to-air missiles against US assets.”
Why this matters
The words 'Another official said the strikes were defensive measures' give a second anonymous US official the explanation for the strikes. Fox News repeats the same account in S8, so the US justification appears three times, counting the headline.
The impression it gives
A reader comes away with only one account of why the US struck Qeshm Island: Iranian forces fired first and the US was defending itself.
The context
Iran's side appears only in S6, where IRNA reports explosions. The article gives no Iranian official response to the claim that Iranians fired surface-to-air missiles at US assets, and no account of what or who was hit. The US justification stays attributed, but nothing is set beside it.
How we know
Elsewhere in the article“IRNA reported that there were several explosions”
Elsewhere in the article“said the strikes were defensive and carried out in response to Iran firing”
“The US carried out strikes on Iran's Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz”
It names the US as the actor in the active voice, so the reader knows from the first line who struck Iranian territory.
“US carries out 'defensive' strikes on Iran's Qeshm Island, officials say”
The headline puts 'defensive' in quotation marks and attributes it to officials, so the US justification is marked as the US government's claim and not as the outlet's own verdict.
“the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity”
It tells the reader the source is an anonymous US official, so the reader can weigh the claim accordingly.