MANAMA — Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Sunday it had launched six drones at a U.S. air defence radar system at Bahrain’s Riffa Air Base, in what it described as a response to hostile U.S. actions.
Sirens sounded across Bahrain on Sunday as the Interior Ministry urged residents to “remain calm” and “proceed to the nearest safe location”. The ministry issued two alerts within about three hours, the first at about 4:30 a.m. local time (01:30 GMT), warning of a “potential threat” and urging residents to seek shelter. Explosions were reported across Bahrain early on Sunday.
The Bahrain Defence Force said its air defence systems thwarted several Iranian “aerial attacks” targeting the kingdom, and that the attacks were destroyed before they could reach their targets.
The U.S. military has not yet commented on Sunday’s claim. The claim has not been independently verified, and there was no immediate confirmation from U.S. or Bahraini authorities that the radar installation was damaged.
It was the second time in three days that the Revolutionary Guards claimed to have targeted a U.S. radar system in Bahrain. On Friday, the Guards said they had destroyed a U.S. early-warning radar in retaliation for what they described as an air attack on a telecommunications tower in southern Iran. The U.S. military’s Central Command denied that claim, saying it had shot down two Iranian drones and that there were no injuries or damage. Reuters reported that Friday marked the first time since early September that Iran had claimed an attack on U.S. military assets in a Gulf country.
In its statement on Sunday, carried by the Revolutionary Guards-affiliated Fars News Agency, the Guards said the Strait of Hormuz remained closed and claimed that U.S. efforts to escort ships through the waterway had failed. The Guards described the operation as the second phase of their response to U.S. military actions and warned that any further U.S. attack would draw a more severe response.
Manama is where the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet is based. A Pentagon inspector general’s report released in September found that Iranian attacks had damaged or destroyed buildings at U.S. installations in eight countries, including Bahrain, in the first four months of the U.S.-Israel war on Iran, which began on February 28.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing U.S. intelligence officials, that Iran still held an estimated 1,500 to 2,500 missiles despite months of American and Israeli strikes on its weapons infrastructure.
Diplomatic efforts to stop the attacks and reopen the Strait of Hormuz remain stalled. Iran’s parliamentary speaker and chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, warned on Sunday that Tehran was prepared for either negotiations or renewed conflict, but would only consider a deal if Washington accepted its seven conditions, conveyed through a Qatari mediator. The conditions include lifting the U.S. naval blockade and sanctions, releasing frozen Iranian funds, ending hostilities on all fronts and formally declaring the war over. The Trump administration has tightened sanctions and maintained the blockade on Iranian ports.
“Both sides may prefer to avoid a full-scale war, but the danger lies in miscalculation,” Saeid Golkar, an associate professor of political science at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, told Al Jazeera. “Iran may continue limited maritime and regional escalation to increase pressure while Washington could respond militarily. Such exchanges could eventually lead to a broader conflict that neither side initially intended.”
