MANAMA, Bahrain — Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced on Wednesday that it launched a coordinated missile and drone assault targeting vital United States military infrastructure in Bahrain and Kuwait. The cross-border strikes were executed shortly after the US military initiated a massive wave of aerial bombardments inside Iran, which Washington stated was a direct retaliation for recent Iranian operations against commercial shipping vessels in the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
In an official communiqué, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps confirmed that its forces orchestrated a joint drone and missile operation aimed directly at major American military assets located at Bandar Salman within Bahrain’s Fifth Naval District, as well as the Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait. Furthermore, the paramilitary organization claimed to have successfully shot down an American MQ9 Reaper drone that was allegedly attempting to intercept and interfere with the retaliatory operation.
The high-stakes exchange follows an aggressive move by Washington earlier in the day, when the United States government unleashed fresh military strikes and officially revoked a specialized sanctions waiver that had previously permitted Iran to sell crude oil on the international market. The White House stated the punitive economic and military actions were necessary responses to recent drone and missile strikes directed at three commercial oil tankers navigating the Strait of Hormuz.
The United States Central Command issued a concurrent statement revealing that its forces had targeted and heavily struck more than 60 small boats belonging to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps naval wing. CENTCOM explained that the primary objective of the operation was to impose a severe tactical cost on Tehran for its repeated violations of the standing ceasefire agreement. The military command added that the unwarranted aggression by Iranian forces constitutes a clear and dangerous violation of the truce and fundamentally undermines global freedom of navigation.
Tehran’s highest military authority, the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, swiftly condemned the American actions, characterizing the airstrikes as a blatant act of aggression. The command center warned that Iran would deliver a crushing response and made it clear that the Islamic Republic would not tolerate any external American interference in the operational management and security of the Strait of Hormuz.
Compounding the diplomatic fallout, top Iranian negotiator and parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf publicly accused the United States of completely destroying the ceasefire treaty. In a detailed post published on the social media platform X, Qalibaf argued that Washington had repeatedly breached the pact, pointing not only to the latest military strikes but also to the re-imposition of unilateral oil sanctions, American interference with Iranian naval adjustments in the strait, and recent Israeli military actions in Lebanon. Qalibaf asserted that the era of bullying and extortion is over, concluding that Iran would not fold under pressure.
Meanwhile, state-affiliated media networks inside Iran documented numerous large-scale explosions across key maritime and energy hubs in the southern region of the country. Reports indicated that blasts reverberated through the port cities of Sirik and Bandar Abbas, as well as Qeshm Island. Crucially, Iran’s Press TV reported multiple detonations on Kharg Island, which serves as the core infrastructure hub handling roughly 90 percent of Iran’s total crude oil exports. Although CENTCOM's public briefings did not explicitly mention Kharg Island as a designated target, the localized reports sparked immediate anxiety across global energy markets.
The rapid military escalation represents the most severe threat yet to the fragile ceasefire brokered between Washington and Tehran just last month. That delicate diplomatic agreement had temporarily paused a direct, highly volatile conflict that was initially triggered by a sequence of coordinated US and Israeli airstrikes executed across the Islamic Republic.
