Iran says it struck a U.S. radar site in Bahrain, in first such claim since September
Photo: Brussels Morning (file photo)Iran's Revolutionary Guards said Friday their Aerospace Force targeted and destroyed a U.S. early-warning radar installation in Bahrain, in retaliation for what Tehran described as an air attack on a telecommunications tower in southern Iran — the first such claim against American military assets in a Gulf country since early September.
The claim, carried by the semi-official Tasnim news agency and the Guards-affiliated Fars news agency, could not be independently verified, and there was no immediate comment from Washington or Manama. The extent of any damage to the radar installation was unclear.
The Guards said the strike came hours after the port city of Sirik, in Iran's southern Hormozgan province on the Strait of Hormuz, was hit on Thursday. Iran's state news agency IRNA reported that Sirik had come under "enemy fire," and Tasnim reported several consecutive explosions in the county. Tehran described the attack as an air strike on a telecommunications tower, and the Guards framed their response as aimed at "the American aggressors."
In its statement, the Guards called the operation "a serious warning" to end what it described as "aerial provocations and oil smuggling in the Strait of Hormuz." The statement warned that if the violations recur, the Aerospace Force "stands in full readiness to engage without limits."
Bahrain hosts the headquarters of the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet in the capital, Manama, which coordinates American naval operations across the Middle East. The claim comes amid a fragile lull in the conflict between Iran and the United States, which began with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28 and has since spread across the region. Iran launched missile and drone attacks on U.S. bases in Gulf states and sought to restrict shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital route for global oil and gas supplies, while Washington imposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports.
Days before the claim, Iran's parliament speaker and lead negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, told Al Jazeera in an interview that the Strait of Hormuz would "never go back to how it was before the war" and that "the ball is now in the American court."
Sources: Reuters, "Iran's Guards say they targeted a US early-warning radar in Bahrain" (Nov. 13, 2026, full text verified); Al Jazeera, "Iran says it targeted US radar site in Bahrain" (Nov. 13, 2026); Gulf Business, "Iran claims strike on US radar in Bahrain" (Nov. 13, 2026). The strike and any damage have not been independently verified.
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