DUBAI — Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said it launched strikes on US targets in the region, including military bases in Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan in retaliation for US strikes on Iranian ports and islands in the Strait of Hormuz.In a statement carried by state media on Wednesday, the IRGC said it launched drone attack on the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain and the Ali Al Salem base in Kuwait, as well as a long-range missile strike on an air base in Azraq, Jordan.It said it attacked 21 US targets and destroyed four of them, including an F-35 fighter jet hangar at the base in Jordan.It also claimed shooting down a US MQ-9 drone in the skies over the Iranian city of Jam.The latest flare-up comes after the US military attacked Qeshm Island and ports along the Iranian coast in the Strait of Hormuz after blaming Iran for the downing of a US Apache helicopter earlier on Tuesday.The IRGC said the US’s attacks had caused damage to a telecommunications tower in the town of Sirik and destroyed to water tanks there.It also warned that its forces remain fully prepared to deliver a “crushing and decisive” response to any US military actions, and said Washington would bear full responsibility for the consequences of further escalation.Jordan has intercepted five missiles from Iran, its military said Wednesday morning, after Iran said it had targeted a US base in the Gulf nation.“We intercepted and downed five missiles launched from Iran toward Azraq,” said the General Command of the Jordanian Armed Forces in a statement, according to the state-run Jordan News Agency.“The interception resulted in falling shrapnel, with no human injuries or material damage reported,” the statement said.The attacks prompted air raid alarms in Bahrain and Kuwait.Sirens sounded in Kuwait early Wednesday with residents urged to head to a safe place, the Gulf state’s military said in a statement.“Kuwait’s air defense systems are currently intercepting hostile aerial targets in accordance with approved operational procedures,” the statement said.The military told residents to “adhere to the safety and security instructions and guidelines issued by the relevant authorities, and to obtain information from official approved sources.”Sirens sounded in Bahrain early Wednesday with residents urged to head to a safe place, Bahrain’s Ministry of Interior said in a post on X.Webcam video geolocated by CNN appears to show the moment of a bright flash coming from the direction of the US Fifth Fleet naval facility in Manama.The video was captured by an EarthTV webcam positioned 3.5 miles northeast of the facility. According to the timestamp on the footage, the flash occurred just three minutes after Bahraini officials announced that sirens had sounded, suggesting an incoming attack.The cause of the flash was not immediately clear, but Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said earlier that they had launched a drone attack targeting the Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain.“The Iranians are trying to make clear that any attack on them would be responded to, regardless of the size and the scope,” Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft in the US, told Al Jazeera news channel.
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