US Strikes Iranian Air Defence Sites, Claims Self-Defence
The United States military has announced its forces have ‘completed’ a new wave of strikes against multiple targets in Iran in the early hours of Thursday (11/6), local time. The US claims the strikes were an act of ‘self-defence’ against ‘unwarranted Iranian aggression’.
US Central Command (CENTCOM), which oversees American military operations in the Middle East, stated that the strikes targeted ‘Iranian military reconnaissance capabilities, communication systems, and air defence sites throughout Iran’. ‘Marine Corps, Air Force, and Navy assets fired multiple precision munitions at Iranian targets that pose a threat to US forces and commercial vessels transiting regional waters,’ CENTCOM said in a statement via social media platform X.
CENTCOM characterised the barrage against Iran as ‘self-defence strikes’ amid a fragile ceasefire that has been in effect since early April. ‘These strikes are in response to continued and unwarranted Iranian aggression. US forces remain vigilant, lethal, and ready,’ CENTCOM noted in its statement.
The latest US strikes, launched on the orders of President Donald Trump, follow similar operations in recent days responding to the shooting down of a US military Apache helicopter by Iran over the Strait of Hormuz.
Separately, local Iranian media reports described a series of explosions and air strikes hitting the country’s southern region in the early hours of Thursday local time. Iranian state television reported that five ‘enemy projectiles’ struck a site in the Kargan area of Minab city in southern Iran. A series of blasts were also reported to have shaken the Bandar Abbas area, with local Iranian media reporting multiple explosions and air defence activity observed in the Jask, Qeshm, and Sirik areas of Hormozgan Province.
The situation in the Middle East has intensified in recent days, with the US and Iran once again engaging in tit-for-tat attacks while a ceasefire is still in place. Both nations have exchanged strikes and accused each other of violating the truce.