Explosions Heard in Iran as US Announces New Wave of Strikes

Tehran - Explosions were heard in several provinces in Iran on Friday night local time as the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) announced the launch of a new wave of strikes against Iran, Iranian media reported. Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency said explosions were reported in Bushehr Province as well as the Sirik and Qeshm areas in Hormozgan Province, without providing further details on targets, casualties, or damage caused. Meanwhile, Iran’s official IRNA news agency said five explosions were heard in Yazd Province in central Iran. In a post on the social media platform X on Friday night local time, CENTCOM said it had launched a new wave of strikes against Iran for the seventh consecutive night, adding that the strikes were “designed to continue degrading Iran’s military capabilities.” Separately, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced in a statement on Friday that earlier the same day, its forces targeted a depot housing US unmanned surface vessels in Bahrain and destroyed a large number of them. Delivering the announcement in a statement published on its official media outlet, Sepah News, the IRGC added that retaliatory attacks using missiles and drones also targeted a major artificial intelligence centre in Bahrain, used by the US to detect targets and commit “war crimes,” and completely destroyed it. In another statement on Friday, the IRGC said its air defence forces shot down an AeroVironment RQ-11 Raven drone in the airspace of Ramshir in Khuzestan Province, southwestern Iran.