Iran Says It Targeted a US Radar Site in Bahrain as Hormuz Tensions Rise
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) says it has targeted a United States early-warning radar in Bahrain. According to Iran, the strike was in retaliation for an air attack on a telecommunications tower in the country's southern Hormozgan province.
Hours earlier, Iran's state news agency IRNA, citing official sources, had reported that the port city of Sirik in Hormozgan province was hit by 'enemy fire' on Thursday.
In a statement carried by the semi-official Tasnim news agency, the IRGC described the strike as a 'serious warning' to the 'aggressor enemy'. The statement referred to stopping aerial provocations and oil smuggling in the Strait of Hormuz.
The IRGC also said in the statement that if such violations and acts of aggression recur, its Aerospace Force stands in full readiness to engage without limits. The IRGC-affiliated Fars news agency said the IRGC's Aerospace Force had targeted and destroyed the radar installation.
There was no immediate comment from Washington or Manama. Bahrain hosts the headquarters of the US Navy's Fifth Fleet.
According to the Reuters news agency, it is the first time since early September that Iran has claimed an attack on US military assets in a Gulf country.
The claim comes as Israeli media, including the public broadcaster KAN, report that Israel's security cabinet has ordered the military to step up preparations for a possible attack on Iran.
Iranian security official Mohsen Rezaei has warned that if the United States launches another war, every military base involved, anywhere from West Asia to Europe, would be a legitimate target for Iranian strikes.
US President Donald Trump has said he is prepared to return to war if the diplomatic track offered by Qatar fails to deliver a deal. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, however, has said economic pressure on Iran is working well enough that resuming large-scale military operations is unnecessary.
In an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera on Wednesday, Iran's parliament speaker and lead negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said the Strait of Hormuz would never go back to how it was before the war, and that 'the ball is now in the American court'. Meanwhile, US Central Command says its forces are still strictly enforcing the naval blockade on Iranian ports. According to the report, the war began on 28 February with US and Israeli attacks on Iran.
