Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they targeted US military sites in Bahrain and Kuwait on Wednesday after the US launched a wave of military strikes on Iran in response to attacks on tankers in the Strait of Hormuz.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it carried out a joint missile and drone operation against key US military sites in Bandar Salman, Bahrain’s Fifth Naval District and Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait, and shot down a US MQ9 drone attempting to interfere in the operation.
The US earlier unleashed fresh military strikes and revoked a license allowing Iran to sell oil in response to attacks on three tankers in the strait.
The US Central Command said more than 60 small boats of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were among the targets hit, in a bid to impose a heavy cost on Iran for strikes on shipping in violation of the cease-fire.
“The unwarranted aggression by Iranian forces is a clear and dangerous violation of the cease-fire and undermines freedom of navigation,” CENTCOM said in a statement.
Iran’s top joint military command, Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, condemned the US strikes as a “blatant act of aggression,” threatened a “crushing response,” and warned that Tehran would not allow US interference in the management of the strait.
A top Iranian negotiator, parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, accused the US of breaching the cease-fire agreement.
He cited not only the latest US military strikes, but renewed oil sanctions, violations of Iranian “adjustments” in the Strait of Hormuz, and Israeli attacks against Lebanon.
“The era of bullying and extortion is over,” Qalibaf said in a post on X. “We don’t fold.”
Iranian media earlier reported explosions in Iran’s main oil hub of Kharg Island, on Qeshm Island and in the southern port cities of Sirik and Bandar Abbas.
Iran’s Press TV reported several blasts were heard in southern Kharg Island. CENTCOM made no mention of Kharg Island, from which Iran exports 90% of its crude oil.
The incidents marked the latest threat to the fragile ceasefire brokered by the United States and Iran last month, which temporarily halted the conflict triggered by US and Israeli strikes across the Islamic Republic.