Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it destroyed a US early-warning radar in Bahrain after a US airstrike on a communications tower in Sirik. The claim came after the first direct attack on US military installations for months, with US forces also saying they intercepted two Iranian drones headed for Bahrain.
The IRGC linked the strike to Sirik, saying the tower there overlooked the strait of Hormuz. It said the action was a retaliatory strike and warned that, if violations continued, its aerospace force was on full alert.
US Central Command and Bahrain
US Central Command denied that the radar system had been destroyed. That split matters because it leaves two very different accounts of the same exchange: one side describing a successful hit on a key warning system, the other saying the system remained intact.
The IRGC said, “This is a serious warning to the aggressor enemy to end its aerial mischief and oil smuggling in the strait of Hormuz,” and added, “In the event of repeated violations and aggression, the IRGC aerospace force is on full alert to confront the enemy without constraint.”
Donald Trump and JD Vance
Over the past 24 hours, Donald Trump said in media interviews that he would attack Iran only if necessary. He also said he had asked JD Vance to end his interest in negotiating a new deal with Iran and wanted him to focus on corruption and fraud in Democrat-run cities and states.
Chris Doyle, director of Caabu, said the British public are sceptical about any war on Iran and what it might achieve. That caution sits alongside a YouGov poll for the Council for Arab-British Understanding, conducted on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, which found 65% of the British public would oppose the US resuming the war in Iran and 14% would support it.
YouGov poll on Iran
The same poll found 54% opposed UK bases being used by the US to mount attacks on Iran, while 29% were in favour. Support for additional UK sanctions against Iran stood at 45%, compared with 22% who opposed them.
This week, Iran’s Assembly of Experts, an 88-member body, called for a review of the country’s defence doctrine and membership of the NPT, describing the move as an “unavoidable necessity” and a “public and national demand.” The Bahrain claim now sits inside a wider confrontation that is still being argued over in public and in official statements.
