Bahrain radar strike claimed by Iran's Revolutionary Guards

A Bahrain radar strike has been claimed by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which says it hit a US early-warning radar in the Gulf kingdom in response to an air attack on a telecommunications tower in southern Iran. The claim, carried by Iranian media on Thursday, has not been independently confirmed, Al Jazeera reported, citing Reuters.

According to Reuters, it is the first time since early September that Iran has said it attacked US military assets in a Gulf country.

What Iran says happened

The sequence of events, as described by Iranian outlets, began earlier on Thursday:

• State news agency IRNA, citing official sources, reported that the port city of Sirik in Hormozgan province was hit by "enemy fire".
• Iran said a telecommunications tower in the area had been struck from the air.
• Hours later, the IRGC said its Aerospace Force had targeted a US early-warning radar in Bahrain.
• The IRGC-linked Fars news agency said the installation had been "targeted and destroyed".

In a statement published by the semi-official Tasnim agency, the IRGC called the action a "serious warning" to stop what it described as aerial provocations and oil smuggling in the Strait of Hormuz. It added that its forces were ready to "engage without limits" if such acts happened again.

Why the Bahrain radar strike matters

Bahrain hosts the headquarters of the US Navy's Fifth Fleet at the Naval Support Activity base in Manama, the main command centre for US naval operations in the Middle East. The base was hit in the opening hours of the war on February 28, and satellite images analysed by Al Jazeera showed direct hits on several radar domes.

A Pentagon inspector general's report released in September found that Iranian attacks damaged or destroyed hundreds of buildings at US installations in eight countries, including Bahrain, during the first four months of the conflict. Analysts say several bases in the region have been left almost unusable.

The report did not include any US confirmation of damage in Bahrain. Separately, US Central Command said it "regularly" moves personnel and assets to optimise mission readiness, after media reports that the US had cut troop numbers at regional bases and ordered some diplomatic staff to leave.

Fragile diplomacy and rising pressure

The claim comes at a tense moment. Israeli media, including public broadcaster KAN, reported that Israel's security cabinet has told the military to step up preparations for a possible attack on Iran. Iran's security chief Mohsen Rezaei has warned that any base used in a new war, from West Asia to Europe, would be a legitimate target.

Washington's message has been mixed. President Donald Trump has said he is ready to return to war if talks mediated by Qatar fail to produce a deal. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, however, has said economic pressure on Iran is working well enough that large-scale military operations are not needed. US forces are still enforcing a naval blockade on Iranian ports, according to Central Command.

Iran's parliament speaker and lead negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, told Al Jazeera this week that the Strait of Hormuz would never return to how it was before the war and that "the ball is now in the American court". Readers can follow the earlier stages of the negotiations in our report on Iran-US talks ending without a breakthrough.

What it means for shipping and Asia

Any fresh fighting around the Strait of Hormuz is watched closely in Asia, because a large share of the oil and gas bought by countries such as Thailand passes through the waterway. Earlier incidents, including tanker fires near Hormuz and strikes on Qeshm Island, showed how quickly trouble in the area can unsettle shipping and energy markets.

For now, the key questions are whether Washington responds, whether Bahrain or the US confirm any damage, and whether the Qatar-mediated talks survive. The war began on February 28 with US and Israeli attacks on Iran, and both sides have since traded threats even as diplomacy continues.

Image: The Manama skyline in Bahrain, where the US Fifth Fleet is based, shown in connection with the Bahrain radar strike claim. Photo by Zairon via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.