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The Iranian regime launched drone attacks on a series of US targets Saturday claiming it was revenge after Iran was hit with a barrage of airstrikes earlier this week that has threatened to doom a cease-fire already teetering on the brink.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps would not disclose which locations “of the U.S. terrorist army in the region” it had targeted, but described the drone strikes as “defensive attacks.”
Bahrain’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that a “number of Iranian drones” had landed in the country in “a flagrant threat to the security of citizens and residents.”
The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center also reported that one of its tankers was attacked by an unidentified projectile Saturday in the Strait of Hormuz, though Iran did not claim responsibility.
The vessel sustained damage to its bridge but there were no reported injuries.
The IRGC admitted it had fired “warning shots” towards unspecified vessels attempting to pass through channels not approved by the Iran, and was now prompting other ships to seek Iranian permits before attempting to cross the strait, state media reported.
The US has not commented on the strikes.
Tehran’s attacks were in response to US airstrikes on its southern coast Friday, as each side continued to accuse the other of violating a cease-fire reached as part of a pact last week that hopes to end the four-month war.
US warplanes blasted Iranian drone storage facilities and coastal radar sites were bombarded in retaliation for the “unwarranted aggression” attack on the M/V Ever Lovely, a Singapore-flagged cargo ship that was traveling through the strait when it was hit on Thursday — setting off the retaliatory attacks.
“Iran signed a ceasefire agreement. We have honored it. If they have disagreements about how the MOU is being applied, they can pick up the phone. But violence will be met with violence,” Vice President JD Vance vowed on X.
Following the attack on the UK tanker, the Joint Maritime Information Center warned that the threat in the region to ships was “substantial.”
“Mariners are advised of the existence of mines and should expect a naval presence as clearance operations continue,” the multinational maritime body said, adding that it would expand a new route in Oman in the strait to allow for both inbound and outbound traffic.
The United Nations-run International Maritime Organization said the plan to move stranded ships out of the Persian Gulf through the strait will be on hold until the agency can confirm safety guarantees for the ships on the evacuation list and in the region.
The Strait of Hormuz remains a contentious point in reaching a permanent cease-fire deal, with negotiations, as outlined in the US-Iran memorandum of understanding, still underway for transiting commercial vessels through the key waterway — and addressing the future of Tehran’s ballistic missile program and its stockpile of highly enriched uranium.
The MOU provides for a 60-day window for the two sides to settle those outstanding differences.
Ebrahim Azizi, who heads the Iranian Parliament’s national security commission, wrote Friday that “the Strait of Hormuz is governed by Iran, so: Respect the rules.”
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