Iran's Guards Say They Hit US Radar in Bahrain and Warn Firms Over Hormuz Oil Trade

It is the first time since early September that Iran has claimed an attack on US military assets in a Gulf country, Reuters reported. Bahrain hosts the headquarters of the US Navy's Fifth Fleet. For companies operating in the Gulf, the claim matters because it suggests the conflict could spread back onto the territory of Gulf states at a time when shipping through Hormuz is still below pre-war levels.

The Guards said in a statement carried by the semi-official Tasnim news agency that the strike was a "serious warning" to the "aggressor enemy" to stop what they called aerial provocations and oil smuggling in the Strait of Hormuz. "Should these violations and acts of aggression recur, the IRGC Aerospace Force stands in full readiness to engage without limits," the statement said. The Guards-affiliated Fars news agency said the radar installation had been "targeted and destroyed".

The Guards also warned that companies "cooperating with the US would face more severe penalties", according to the markets news site investingLive. The statement did not say what those penalties would be. Analysts quoted by investingLive said the warning matters most for oil: any sign that tanker operators, charterers or insurers were pulling back from Hormuz could tighten flows and push up freight and war-risk insurance costs.

Hours before the Guards' statement, Iran's state news agency IRNA, citing official sources, said Sirik had been hit by "enemy fire" on Thursday. Iranian state media gave no details of damage or casualties, and the United States has not said it carried out a strike there.

The war began on February 28 with US and Israeli attacks on Iran, and the two sides have since held to an uneasy stalemate. US Central Command says its forces are still strictly enforcing a naval blockade of Iranian ports. President Donald Trump said this week that the US no longer needs a deal with Iran, but he has also said he is ready to return to war if the diplomatic track run by Qatar fails. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said economic pressure on Iran is working well enough that large-scale military operations do not need to resume.

In Tehran, security chief Mohsen Rezaei has warned that if the US starts another war, every military base involved, from West Asia to Europe, would be a legitimate target. In an interview with Al Jazeera on Wednesday, parliament speaker and lead negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said the Strait of Hormuz would never go back to how it was before the war and that "the ball is now in the American court". Israel's security cabinet has ordered the military to step up preparations for a possible attack on Iran, according to Israeli media including the public broadcaster KAN.

The claim comes a day after Yemen's Houthis said they had struck a pumping station on Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline, which carries crude around the Strait of Hormuz to the Red Sea. The next thing to watch is whether US Central Command or Bahrain confirms or denies the Guards' claim.