Iran's IRGC Claims Destruction of US AI Centre and Drone Depot in Bahrain

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of Iran claimed on Friday (17/7) that its forces had destroyed a major artificial intelligence (AI) centre and a drone depot belonging to the United States in Bahrain. The IRGC described the attack as retaliation for recent US strikes on Iran.

In a statement carried by Anadolu Agency on Saturday (18/7/2026), the IRGC said the assault was launched after the US military ‘committed a war crime’ by attacking several bridges in Iranian territory the previous night, which ‘killed and wounded a number of civilians’.

The IRGC claimed its forces had ‘destroyed the US drone vehicle depot in Bahrain’. ‘Many of them were burnt to ashes,’ the IRGC stated. The IRGC also claimed its forces had ‘completely destroyed the main artificial intelligence (AI) centre’ in Bahrain. According to the IRGC statement, the AI centre had been used by the US military to ‘assist the enemy in target selection to commit war crimes’.

The IRGC said the sites were attacked using ‘a number of ballistic missiles and dozens of drones’. The IRGC further issued a fresh warning to the US, as the two countries have exchanged fire repeatedly in recent times following attacks on vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, which are believed to have been orchestrated by Iran.

The IRGC asserted that if the US continues to target bridges and transport infrastructure in Iran, it will attack ‘the most important assets in the industrial, information technology, and artificial intelligence sectors belonging to companies with American shareholders’ in various countries hosting US military bases in the Middle East region. ‘All countries hosting US military bases in this region are complicit in these war crimes,’ the IRGC stressed.

In addition to striking Bahrain, the IRGC also targeted US military facilities in other Gulf countries, such as Kuwait and Jordan, in the retaliatory attacks.