Iran launches strikes on Bahrain as Tehran says it attacked US military base

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Bahrain’s air defence systems intercepted and destroyed multiple Iranian aerial attacks on Sunday, while Tehran claimed it struck a US military base in the kingdom amidst uncertainty over a deal to end the US-Israeli war on Iran.

The defensive action marked the first such interceptions by Bahraini forces since September, following two warnings of potential threats urging residents to seek shelter.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said the strike on the US base was in retaliation for “hostile US actions”, Iran’s Fars news agency reported.

Military officials in Bahrain said incoming strikes were neutralised before reaching their targets, accusing Tehran of continuing its “systematic hostile approach” towards the kingdom.

State-run Press TV reported six Revolutionary Guard drones targeted US air defence radar at the Al-Rifaa helicopter base, with no immediate confirmation from US or local authorities.

Bahrain, home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, urged citizens to remain calm and seek safe shelter, the interior ministry said.

Two days earlier the Revolutionary Guards said they had attacked a US early-warning radar facility in Bahrain. The US military denied this, saying it had intercepted two Iranian drones without any damage.

Diplomatic efforts to end the almost nine-month conflict have yet to produce a breakthrough, with sporadic attacks continuing despite a broader lull in fighting between the US and Iran.

The war began with US and Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28 and subsequently spread across the region, with Tehran launching missile and drone attacks on US military bases in Gulf countries.

President Donald Trump has said in recent days that he might hold off from attacking Iran if the US faces no new provocations from Tehran or the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen, but that he would maintain a US naval blockade, Reuters reported on Saturday.

On another front, however, the Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition fighting them have continued to exchange attacks, with the coalition saying on Sunday that it had intercepted two Houthi ballistic missiles launched towards Saudi capital Riyadh and three drones in the kingdom’s oil-rich Eastern Province.

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