Iran strikes US bases, warns of ‘crushing’ response to infrastructure attacks
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Tehran: Iran's Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters on Thursday warned that any US attack on the country's power plants and bridges would prompt a sweeping response targeting infrastructure across West Asia, after Iranian forces launched strikes on US military bases in Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan.
The warning came after US President Donald Trump said Washington would expand its military campaign against Iran next week to include power plants and bridges unless Tehran agreed to negotiate.
Over the past several days, the US military has carried out multiple waves of strikes on Iran's southern provinces, saying the operations were in response to Iranian attacks on vessels in the Strait of Hormuz and were intended to reduce Iran's ability to threaten commercial shipping.
Responding to Trump's warning, Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters spokesman Ebrahim Zolfaghari said Iran's armed forces would retaliate with force if US attacks on Iranian infrastructure continued.
He said any future response would be far more severe, widespread and destructive, warning that Iran would target infrastructure that had so far remained untouched.
Earlier on Thursday, Iranian forces launched missile and drone attacks on US bases and facilities in Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan in retaliation for the latest US strikes on locations in southern Iran.
In a statement carried by its official outlet Sepah News, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said its naval and aerospace forces jointly carried out the attacks.
According to the IRGC, the strikes destroyed a C-RAM radar system, a satellite communications centre and an assembly site at Kuwait's Ali Al Salem Air Base. It also said a fighter jet ramp and a command centre at Jordan's al-Azraq Air Base were hit, along with a wharf at Kuwait's Shuaiba Port.
The Iranian Army also deployed drones targeting US radar systems, a Patriot missile battery and oil depots at Ali Al Salem Air Base, as well as communications and radar facilities at Bahrain's Shaikh Isa Air Base.
IRGC spokesman Hossein Mohebi said Iran's operations were aimed at destroying US offensive infrastructure in West Asia, adding that the United States should not expect the current pattern of confrontation to continue.
The latest escalation comes despite a peace memorandum of understanding signed on June 18, under which Iran and the United States were expected to begin negotiations within 60 days.
With IANS inputs