Iran Targets U.S. Airbase Behind Bandar Abbas Attack
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Thursday that it attacked a U.S. airbase in Kuwait from which American forces launched yesterday’s strikes on Bandar Abbas.
“This response is a serious warning to the enemy that any act of aggression will not go unanswered, and if repeated, our response will be even more decisive,” the IRGC said, in a statement carried by the state-owned Press TV.
“The aggressor bears full responsibility for the consequences,” it added.
The strikes it is responding to hit a military ground control station in the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas, near the Strait of Hormuz, that Washington said was preparing to launch drones at U.S. forces. Three explosions were reported east of the city at around 1:30am local time, briefly triggering the area’s air defences.
A U.S. official called the strike “measured, purely defensive, and intended to maintain the ceasefire,” and CENTCOM said its forces had shot down four Iranian one-way attack drones near the strait. It was the second U.S. strike on Bandar Abbas this week. Both came during a ceasefire, a ceasefire the USA seems incapable of holding to.
The USA keeps a naval blockade on the strait, to hold until negotiations conclude "one way or the other." A blockade of this manner is incompatible with a ceasefire, as it is by definition an act of war.
The exchange of fire over the last 12 hours is the third such instance of a violent flare up between the two sides, with the USA launching the initial attacks in each case.