Middle East Heats Up Again: US and Iran Exchange Attacks
The situation in the Middle East has escalated again after the United States attacked Iran, with explosions heard in several areas of the country. Blasts were reported in multiple locations in Hormozgan Province, including on Qeshm Island and along the coast near the Strait, as US fighter jets were also reported to be crowding Iranian airspace.
The US military launched what it called a proportionate strike against Iran, a response to the shooting down of an Apache helicopter in the Strait of Hormuz the previous day. “U.S. forces began launching self-defence strikes against Iran at 5:00 p.m. ET today at the direction of the Commander in Chief, in response to the downing of a U.S. Army Apache helicopter yesterday,” US Central Command stated. “This mission is a proportionate response to Iran’s unjustified aggression,” it added.
Iran reacted angrily. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned the US to leave the region. “Leave our region if you want to be safe,” Araghchi declared, vowing no American attack would go unanswered. “Despite losing on the battlefield, the U.S. has chosen to test our resolve,” he stated. “Our powerful armed forces will not leave any attack or threat unanswered.”
Following this, Iran’s military retaliated by striking a number of US military bases in the Gulf region, claiming its forces attacked 21 US military targets across the Middle East. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed its troops shot down a US MQ-9 Reaper surveillance drone detected flying in Iranian airspace in the southern Bushehr Province. The IRGC also claimed to have launched a drone attack targeting the US Fifth Fleet base in Bahrain in the early hours of Wednesday, around 2:30 a.m. local time. The IRGC warned that “harsher and more extensive” strikes would follow if the US continued its aggression against Iran.
Both Iran’s central military headquarters and the IRGC simultaneously announced their attacks were in retaliation for the US bombardment targeting areas in Jask, Sirik, and Qeshm in the country’s south. Iran also reportedly launched missiles and drones towards Bahrain, which the Bahraini military stated its air defence systems intercepted and destroyed. The General Command of the Bahrain Defence Force accused Iran of continuing its “systematic hostile approach through criminal missile and drone attacks, targeting civilians in the Kingdom of Bahrain”. It stated all its defence units were at the highest level of readiness and urged the public to be extremely cautious and to avoid approaching or handling any suspicious foreign objects from the attacks.