Armed Forces respond to US assault with missiles, drones
Iran's Armed Forces launched new attacks on US bases and assets in the region in response to the US strikes on southern parts of Iran as renewed exchange of fire prompted the head of the United Nations to caution against a return to all-out war.
According to Iran’s Foreign Ministry, the escalation began in the early morning hours of Wednesday when the US carried out "savage attacks" on areas in southern Iran under the pretext that one of its Apache helicopters had targeted by Iran over the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday night.
The ministry's statement slammed the attacks as a flagrant violation of the United Nations Charter, saying that, "With these aggressive actions, the US ruling administration once again demonstrated its criminal and warmongering nature."
In response to the military aggression and the violation of Iran's national sovereignty and territorial integrity, the country's "powerful armed forces" struck US bases and assets in the region that were the origin of these aggressions, the ministry said.
The Foreign Ministry also reminded all countries in the region — particularly those on the southern shores of the Persian Gulf — of their "legal and moral responsibility" to prevent the US and Israeli military from using their territory and facilities to design, organize, execute, or support aggressive actions against Iran. "The Islamic Republic of Iran will not hesitate in exercising its inherent right to self-defense, including by targeting the origin of attacks as well as bases and logistics facilities used to execute and support aggressive operations against Iran," the ministry warned.
According to the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), the US military attacked several locations in Jask, Sirik, and Qeshm in the southern province of Hormozgan earlier in the day under the "false pretext" of an American helicopter's crash.
The American strikes had damaged a telecommunications tower in Sirik and destroyed two water reservoirs in the Bemani district of the county, the IRGC added.
The IRGC said its Navy responded to the attacks by carrying out a retaliatory drone strike against the headquarters of the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain. The force later announced that it had also launched a missile strike against Washington's al-Azraq base in Jordan. An informed military source, meanwhile, said Iran used long-range solid-fuel Kheibar Shekan missiles to target the shelters housing the warplanes.
The IRGC added that, in total, 21 targets at American air and naval bases across the region were hit throughout the reprisal.
Additionally, the Iranian Army's said it launched waves of drone operations against American bases and the radar systems of the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain.