The US has carried out strikes on Iran's Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz, US officials have told CBS, the BBC's US partner.

The officials described the strikes as limited and defensive, and said they were in response to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) firing on a US aircraft.

Iranian state news agency Irna reported explosions on Qeshm on Monday. The IRGC did not comment but said its forces had shot down two US MQM-170 drones south of the island and a US MQ-9 drone east of the Strait of Hormuz.

The US military has not commented on the strikes, which came as mediators stepped up their efforts to prevent a return to all-out war after the US midterm elections on Tuesday.

Trump has been facing falling polling numbers and pressure from within his Republican Party to end the war, which began when the US and Israel attacked Iran in February.

Earlier on Monday, the president told reporters that he was in "no rush" to ramp up strikes on Iran.

"One way or the other, we will do something, but there is no rush. We crippled them financially," he told news outlet Axios. "They have no money, no gasoline and their people are getting very tired of it."

He also said the US "might need to go after Pickaxe [Mountain]", an underground site linked to Iran's nuclear programme, in an interview with Fox News on the eve of the midterms.

Source: bbc