File image.
Iran attacked three bases of the United States in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Jordan on June 11, responding to another wave of American strikes and threats by President Donald Trump.
Initially, Iranian media reported that the Islamic Republic had launched strikes against the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain.
“In this wave of army drone strikes, communication antennas and radar facilities of the Patriot system of the 5th Fleet were targeted,” the semi-official Mehr and Fars news agencies post on Telegram.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) later announced that it also struck a key air base used by the U.S. Air Force in Kuwait.
“During two waves of operations, eighteen important targets belonging to the U.S. Army in the bases of Ali and Ahmad Ahmad Air Force (were hit),” the guards said in a statement quoted by state-run IRNA, adding that they also “hit and destroyed Sheikh Isa air bases.”
In another statement, the guards announced that a dozen ballistic missiles were launched at a U.S. command center in Jordan.
This “punitive operation against the aggressor” targeted “Al-Azraq Air Base and its control center, using 12 ballistic missiles,” the IRGC was quoted as saying by the Tasnim news agency, claiming to have destroyed these facilities “and a large number of fighter aircraft.”
Interceptions were reported over Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan, with preliminary reports indicating multiple impacts, especially in the latter.
The Iranian attack came just a few hours after the U.S. carried out one of its most extensive waves of strikes against the Islamic Republic — which announced amid the American escalation that it will be completely closing off the Strait of Hormuz.
The Central Command said in a statement that the strikes were carried out by “U.S. Marine Corps, Air Force, and Navy assets,” describing the targets as “Iranian military surveillance capabilities, communication systems, and air defense sites across Iran.”
“The strikes are in response to Iran’s unwarranted and continued aggression. U.S. forces remain vigilant, lethal, and ready,” it added.
Amid the strikes, Trump told a Fox News reporter that he spoke directly with Iranian officials who asked him to stop strikes on the country — which he said would happen shortly.
He was quoted however warning that if the Islamic Republic won’t sign a proposed deal from U.S. negotiators to open the Strait of Hormuz and ensure it cannot acquire a nuclear bomb, “We’ll the bomb shit out of them.”
Trump, who was speaking from the White House Situation Room, stressed that Israel was not involved in the strikes on Iran.
Iran’s state media later cited a senior official as denying that the Islamic Republic was in contact with Trump in the wake of the U.S. strikes.
“Trump’s false claim that Iranian officials contacted him is a cover to evade war with Iran,” the unnamed official was quoted as saying.
The latest attack by the U.S. was not the first this week, and will not likely be the last. The Trump administration is clearly attempting to increase military pressure on Iran without returning to full-scale war. Preventing Israel from joining is a clear sign of this.
Nevertheless, the Islamic Republic will likely continue to respond, and at some point, escalation could force a return to fight, especially that there has been no real progress in diplomatic efforts.
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carry on bro hit em hard