Iran launches ‘retaliatory’ attacks toward U.S. bases in Middle East
June 10 (UPI) — Iran said it launched strikes against U.S. military bases in neighboring countries in and around the Persian Gulf early Wednesday in retaliation for American “aggression” after U.S. forces conducted strikes on targets in southern Iran.
Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, Iran’s central command, said in a statement published by the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency that the “brave Army of the Islamic Republic and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps” carried out a “powerful assault” on U.S. military assets in the region.
“The criminal U.S. military should know that if aggression against the Islamic Republic of Iran is repeated, even more severe and widespread attacks will be carried out against the designated target bank in the region, it added.
The statement was accompanied by a photo showing six ground-launched ballistic missiles blasting off from an undisclosed desert location but it was unclear if it was of Wednesday’s strikes as the image was undated and uncredited.
The IRGC claimed missiles were fired at Jordan’s Muwaffaq Salti airbase, where U.S. F-35 fighter jets and other aircraft operate out of, and that facilities in Kuwait and Bahrain were also attacked.
It said that the U.S. Fifth Fleet in Bahrain was targeted with drones.
The attacks had yet to be verified but Jordan’s armed forces said they downed five Iranian missiles targeting the country’s al-Azraq district, 60 miles east of the capital, Amman.
The Kuwaiti military, in a post on X just after 3 a.m. local time, said its air defenses were “currently intercepting hostile aerial targets.”
Bahrain’s interior ministry issued multiple alerts around the same time, advising residents that the air-raid siren had been sounded, urging them not to panic and to move to the nearest safe place to shelter immediately.
No deaths or injuries were reported.
The escalation came almost immediately after U.S. Central Command announced that it had completed “self-defense strikes” ordered by President Donald Trump in response to the downing of a U.S. Army Apache helicopter earlier Tuesday.
CENTCOM said in a statement early Wednesday that U.S. Air Force and Navy fighter jets struck Iranian air defense, ground control stations, and surveillance radar sites near the Strait of Hormuz “with precision munitions’ in an approximately four-hour-long operation.
“The operation was a proportional response to recent attacks on U.S. forces and international commercial ships transiting regional water,” said CENTCOM.
The ratcheting up of tensions prompted Beijing and Moscow to call on both sides to apply the brakes.
“China is deeply concerned over the latest developments regarding Iran. Relevant parties need to remain calm, exercise restraint, stop exacerbating confrontation and escalating tensions, take concrete actions to ease the situation, stick to political and diplomatic means for resolving disputes, and work for an early realization of a comprehensive and lasting cease-fire,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters on Wednesday.
In a post on X, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Moscow was very worried about what she called “the new spiral of U.S.-Iran armed confrontation.”
She called on both parties to show restraint and halt military attacks immediately, adding that Russia stood ready to assist in finding and implementing “mutually acceptable negotiated solutions” to the crisis.
