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Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced on July 8 that it hit dozens of United States military facilities in Kuwait and Bahrain overnight in response to American strikes that targeted the Islamic Republic.
“In an initial response to this aggression, the IRGC Navy and Aerospace Force carried out a joint missile and drone operation, striking 85 key U.S. military facilities” in the two countries, the guards said in a statement carried by state broadcaster IRIB.
Kuwait confirmed that its air defenses responded to an attack with missiles and drones, and warning sirens sounded more than once in Bahrain.
Later, the IRGC announced that it had shot down an American MQ-9 Reaper combat drone near the city of Khormoj in the southern Iranian province of Bushehr. Brig. Gen. Hossein Mohabi, a spokesman for the guards, said the drone was targeted by an air defense system following what he called a U.S. “air aggression.”
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The U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) launched what it described as “powerful strikes” against Iran overnight, saying that the attack was an “immediate response” to recent attacks by the Islamic Republic on commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz.
Blasts were heard near the port city of Bandar Abbas and in Sirik County in the southern province of Hormozgan. Qeshm Island was also hit. Additional strikes were reported in the southern province of Bushehr.
Meanwhile, in the city of Bandar-e Mahshahr in the southwestern province of Khuzestan, a service member of the IRGC Navy was killed in a strike.
CENTCOM said that the strikes hit Iranian air defense systems, command and control networks, coastal radar sites, anti-ship missile capabilities, and more than 60 small boats belonging to the IRGC Navy to “degrade Iran’s ability to continue attacking international commerce flowing through the international trade corridor.”
“Iran recently attacked three commercial vessels transiting the strait including Marshall Islands-flagged M/T Al Rekayyat, Saudi Arabia-flagged M/T Wedyan, and Liberian-flagged M/T Cyprus Prosperity,” the command said in a statement.
It further warned that “unwarranted aggression by Iranian forces is a clear and dangerous violation of the ceasefire and undermines freedom of navigation.”
The latest clash marks the most serious confrontation between the U.S. and Iran since the two signed a memorandum of understanding to end the war last month.
Commenting on the exchange of strikes overnight, U.S. President Donald Trump said that the memorandum of understanding “is over.”
“To me, I think it’s over,” Trump said of the deal while taking questions from reporters ahead of a summit of NATO leaders in Ankara. “I don’t want to deal with them. They’re scum.”
“They’re sick people. They’re led by sick people. And they’re vicious, violent people. And if they had a nuclear weapon, they’d use it. As far as I’m concerned, it’s over,” the U.S. president added.
He condemns the Islamic Republic for attacking vessels despite assurance by the U.S. that it wouldn’t escalate the conflict during funeral processions of Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, who was assassinated at the start of the American-Israeli war: “We said, ‘Go and do your funeral stuff,’ and instead of that, they start shooting rockets at ships yesterday. And so we hit them very hard last night, very hard.”
Despite the recent escalation and Trump’s remarks, the memorandum of understanding is not officially over yet. The coming hours will certainly be decisive, however. If the U.S. renews strikes on Iran, under any pretext, we may see a return to full-on war.
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when trump said ““they’re sick people. they’re led by sick people. and they’re vicious, violent people. ” it seemed he was speaking of the israelis. what should a sociopath expect after a sneak attack killing hundreds of children and a deeply religious old man.
trump is such a disgusting piece of crap. i cannot believe he had the gall to assure iran that he and isnreal wouldn’t attack khamenei’s funeral. only a real piece of zionist crap would in the first place. trump=war crimes r us. this orange-faced sorry excuse for anything, much less a human, needs removed. permanently, before the world fries.
the only thing trump the turd has accomplished in the u.s. is to bring out the absolute worst in americans. especially those that still follow this maniacal sad excuse for a living creature. he has to be the very thing he looks like, the anti-christ come to be the destroyer of everything. how can so many be so damn stupid and evil?