Iran’s Revolutionary Guards claimed on Friday that their forces had struck and destroyed a US early-warning radar system in Bahrain, but the American military rejected the account and said it had shot down two Iranian attack drones before they could cause harm, reported by Arab News.
In a statement carried by Iranian state media, the Guards’ Aerospace Force said it had targeted the “US aggressors’” radar on the island of Bahrain. It described the operation as retaliation for what Iran called an American attack on a telecommunications tower in Sirik, a southern Iranian port area overlooking the Strait of Hormuz.
Several hours later, US Central Command, which oversees American military activity in the region, said the Iranian claim was false. It said the Revolutionary Guards had launched two one-way attack drones toward Bahrain and that US forces had intercepted both. There were no injuries or damage, according to CENTCOM.
The exchange marked Iran’s first reported attempt to strike a US military facility in a Gulf state in more than two months. Earlier in the war, Tehran repeatedly targeted American bases in Bahrain, and US media reported damage to a logistics hub severe enough to force the Navy to rely on bases far from the region.
The Revolutionary Guards framed the alleged radar strike as a warning to Washington to end what it called aerial provocations and oil smuggling in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital route for global energy shipments. CENTCOM has said it helped Gulf countries export 1.5 billion barrels of oil through the waterway since the summer.
The broader conflict began on 28 February, when the United States and Israel launched surprise attacks on Iran. Since then, Iran has restricted shipping through Hormuz and struck airports, ports, energy facilities and US assets across the region. The United States, in turn, imposed a blockade on Iranian ports and later announced an “economic asphyxiation” campaign intended to limit Iran’s trade and finances.newcastleherald.
Neither Iran’s claim of destroying the radar nor its account of the Sirik strike could be independently verified.
