Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Sunday that its aerospace force had targeted a US air defence radar station in Bahrain in a drone attack in the preceding hours.
The attack, carried out with six drones against the radar system at the Al-Riffa helicopter base, marked the second phase of the “decisive and crushing” retaliatory response to the US Army’s “flagrant aggression” against Iran, the IRGC said in a statement posted on its official news outlet Sepah News.
It added that the United States, “which has faced complete failure in its plan to smuggle oil in the Strait of Hormuz under the guise of escorting ships,” is now attempting to divert global public attention through “small and misguided” actions from the reality that the strait is closed.
“Any aggression by the US enemy will be met with a harsher and more crushing response,” the IRGC added.
Also on Sunday, the IRGC Navy said that two “violating” oil tankers attempting to cross the Strait of Hormuz through an “unauthorised” route had exploded and caught fire after hitting naval mines, Xinhua News Agency reported.
The oil tankers had turned off their navigation and automatic identification systems and attempted to transit the waterway “stealthily,” the navy said in a statement.
Two other tankers that intended to cross the strait “surreptitiously” changed course and returned to the Persian Gulf waters after receiving warnings from the IRGC Navy’s maritime traffic control in the Strait of Hormuz.
Earlier, the navy of Iran’s IRGC said that two “violating” oil tankers exploded and caught fire within the preceding hour after hitting naval mines while attempting to cross the Strait of Hormuz through an “unauthorised” route.
In a statement on the IRGC’s official news outlet Sepah News Friday night (local time), the navy identified one vessel as a supertanker and said both had turned off their radar and navigation systems.
It warned shipowners and shipping companies that the same fate awaits those vessels trying to pass through the strait without coordination with its traffic-control centre and in disregard of Iranian regulations.
–IANS
