IRGC targets US air defense radar in Bahrain base with six drones
Blasts echoed over Bahrain on Sunday as the tiny Persian Gulf nation was rattled by the second Iranian drone attack in three days, ending a long lull in strikes during the US-Israeli aggression against Iran.
Sirens rang out and authorities posted several alerts on social media urging residents to seek shelter, their first warnings since September.
Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) said in a statement that its forces fired six drones at Bahrain, targeting a US radar system at Al-Riffa helicopter base in the desert island state, which hosts US military facilities including a major naval base.
The IRGC said the radar was targeted in the “second phase of a decisive and crushing response to [US] aggression.”
“The precise and successful impact of these drones was heard in various parts of Bahrain, once again demonstrating the IRGC’s operational capabilities,” the statement said.
Explosions could be heard around 4:00 am (0100 GMT) on Sunday, an AFP journalist said, with residents reporting a second series of blasts around 6:30 am.
However, Bahrain’s military claimed it intercepted the attacks, “preventing them from reaching their intended targets”. The foreign ministry claimed air defense systems shot down Iranian drones.
On Friday, the IRGC also said it had destroyed a US military early-warning radar in Bahrain in a precision strike by its Aerospace Force.
The statement called the Bahrain strike “a serious warning to the aggressor enemy to cease its aerial provocations and oil smuggling in the Strait of Hormuz.”
The attacks came after the US launched an attack on a communications tower in Iran’s southern port city of Sirik overlooking the Strait of Hormuz.
The Friday’s attack on Bahrain was the first such strikes since September on US bases in Arab countries in the energy-rich Persian Gulf.
Most Persian Gulf Arab countries host major US military installations and were targeted in Iranian retaliatory attacks in the weeks after the US-Israel war on Iran began on February 28.
During the recent acts of aggression against Iran, some regional countries allowed the US to use their territories to launch attacks on Iran. Tehran had repeatedly warned the countries about the issue.