Iran hits US base radar in Bahrain

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has attacked the radar system at a US military base in Bahrain early Friday, according to Iran's state-run IRNA news agency.

The IRGC also claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement, saying it was carried out in retaliation for a strike on a telecommunications tower in the port city of Sirik in Iran's southern Hormozgan province on Thursday night.

Describing the operation as a serious warning to the “aggressive enemy”, the IRGC said its Aerospace Force was fully prepared to respond at any scale if such violations and hostile actions continued.

Iranian news agency Fars, which is close to the IRGC, claimed that the radar installation at the US base in Bahrain had been completely destroyed in the attack.

Neither the United States nor Bahrain has issued any response to the incident so far.

Bahrain hosts the headquarters of the US Navy's Fifth Fleet at Naval Support Activity in the capital, Manama. The facility serves as a major command centre for US naval operations across the Middle East.

Since the US-Iran war began on February 28, Bahrain's US military facilities have been targeted in several Iranian attacks.

Following Friday's strike, Qatar-based Al Jazeera reported, citing an analysis of satellite images, that several radar domes at the base had been directly hit, while multiple buildings had also sustained damage.

Iran had refrained from attacking US military bases in the Middle East since the first week of September. Friday's operation marked an end to the two-month pause.

-AJM