Iran’s Revolutionary Guards announced on Friday that their forces targeted a United States early warning radar system situated on the island of Bahrain. State media broadcast the claim.
Neither authorities in Manama nor the United States government confirmed any military strike hitting Bahrain. American military bases across the Gulf faced repeated attacks earlier in the eight-month conflict involving Iran.
In a statement on Telegram, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Aerospace Force said the operation took place hours prior. The military wing claimed the action destroyed the radar installation in response to an aerial raid on a telecommunications tower in the southern Iranian port city of Sirik.
The statement warned the adversary to halt aerial provocations and oil smuggling in the Strait of Hormuz. Gulf nations absorbed the main impact of Tehran’s military response after the United States and Israel launched strikes against Iran on February 28, starting the war.
Iran restricted commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and targeted regional infrastructure, including airports, seaports, energy facilities and American military assets in allied nations.
United States Central Command reported last month that it facilitated the export of 1.5 billion barrels of oil from Gulf countries since the summer through the energy corridor.
Early in the conflict, the United States blockaded Iranian ports. Washington then declared an economic asphyxiation campaign in August to restrict Iranian trade and financial transactions.
Washington appeared to scale back threats of new military strikes after President Donald Trump’s Republican party lost recent midterm elections, a political shift driven partly by public opposition to the campaign against Iran.
