Iran Claims Attacks on U.S. Radar Station in Bahrain, LNG Tanker

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Friday claimed to have destroyed an American early-warning radar system in Bahrain, in retaliation for a U.S. airstrike on an Iranian port on Thursday night.

Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported an attack from an unspecified “enemy” struck the port town of Sirik in the southern province of Hormozgan on Thursday night. IRNA offered no details of damage or casualties, and there was no independent confirmation of the report.

The IRGC’s aerospace force said on Friday it “targeted and destroyed the American aggressors’ early-warning radar on the island of Bahrain,” in retaliation for “the enemy’s aerial aggression against a telecommunications tower in Sirik.”

“If violations and acts of aggression are repeated, the IRGC Aerospace Force is on full alert for an unrestricted response,” the IRGC statement added.

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) denied the IRGC’s claim and said the “two one-way attack drones” launched toward Bahrain were “shot down by U.S. forces,” without any “injuries or damage.”

CENTCOM did not directly address Iran’s claim of an airstrike on Sirik. The Iranians made several previous unverified claims of “enemy” attacks on radio towers in the coastal town.

The IRGC also claimed an unidentified tanker carrying liquified natural gas (LNG) struck a naval mine while following an “unauthorized and dangerous route” through the Strait of Hormuz on Friday.

“Failing to learn from the fate of previously destroyed oil tankers, this vessel chose to be escorted by American combat aircraft during its passage,” the IRGC said.

“By the grace of God, the Strait of Hormuz is being managed with absolute decisiveness and seriousness by the Armed Forces of the country. Any vessel that attempts to violate Iranian regulations in the Strait or, disregarding warnings from the Strait’s traffic control center, by entering unauthorized and high-risk routes will experience the same fate as previous vessels,” the Iranian terrorist organization threatened.

Iran claimed a total of four oil tankers suffered damage from its naval mines while passing through the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday.

Iran has made almost daily claims of attacking commercial vessels in the strait, in an effort to contest U.S. claims that the Strait of Hormuz is safe for maritime traffic under American military control. Some of Iran’s claims attacks have been confirmed by CENTCOM and other sources, although usually with much less damage to the ships involved than the IRGC asserted, while other claims remain unverified.

Iranian parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf told Al Jazeera News on Wednesday that the Strait of Hormuz will “never return” to its prewar status quo.

“There are no ‘free waters’ there, and the 1982 UNCLOS [U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea] does not apply to the strait,” he asserted.

“The regulations within the Strait of Hormuz are governed by the laws of the two littoral states that border it,” he said, meaning Iran and Oman. For much of the past year, Iran has been trying to convince Oman to join a scheme in which the two states would extort ransoms from international shipping in exchange for safe passage.

IRGC deputy commander Maj. Gen. Mostafa Izadi said on Friday that Iran has withstood an attempt to overthrow its government by the U.S. and Israel, and has recovered enough of its missile, drone, and naval capability to attack “enemy bases on land and at sea.”