TEHRAN — Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said on Friday its forces targeted a US early-warning radar system in Bahrain, the first such claim of an attack on American military assets in a Gulf country since early September.
The IRGC said the strike was in retaliation for what they described as an air attack on a telecommunications tower in Iran’s southern Sirik county, in Hormozgan province, according to a statement carried by the Iranian state broadcaster.
There was no immediate confirmation of the strike by Bahrain or the United States, whose bases and equipment in the Gulf were repeatedly targeted earlier in its eight-month war with Iran.
“A few hours ago, IRGC Aerospace Force fighters targeted and destroyed the US aggressors’ early-warning radar on the island of Bahrain in response to the enemy’s air aggression against a telecommunications tower in Sirik,” the statement said, referring to a port city in southern Iran.
“This is a serious warning to the aggressor enemy to stop its aerial provocations and oil smuggling in the Strait of Hormuz,” it added in the statement, posted by the state broadcaster on Telegram.
The claim came amid a fragile lull in the conflict, which began after the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran on February 28 and has since spread across the region.
Iran launched missile and drone attacks on US bases in Gulf states and sought to restrict shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital route for global oil and gas supplies. Washington, in turn, imposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports.
The US Central Command, which oversees American military operations in the region, said last month that it had helped Gulf countries export 1.5 billion barrels of oil since the summer via Hormuz, a key energy trading route.
Source: Saudi Gazette