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Did Iran's IRGC strike US 5th Fleet headquarters in Bahrain with missiles, drones? US CENTCOM reveals ‘truth’
The U.S. Central Command has spoken out after Iran's IRGC it attacked the US Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain with missiles and drones.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps has claimed that it attacked the US Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain, and an airbase and helicopters, using drones and missiles, Iranian media reported. The strike was made in response to what the IRGC describes as a US attack on a communications tower south of Qeshm Island.
The IRGC also claimed that its navy targeted a vessel called Panaya with missiles in response to a US attack on an Iranian tanker near the Strait of Hormuz with a projectile, which ended up damaging the engine room. “Disrupting the security of the Strait of Hormuz will carry a heavy price for the US military,” local media cited the IRGC as saying.
U.S. Central Command rejects claims
However, the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) has now officially rejected Iranian claims that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps struck the U.S. Fifth Fleet headquarters at Naval Support Activity (NSA) Bahrain. It claimed that all incoming threats were successfully intercepted or neutralized, and that no US facilities were struck.
“Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claims they struck U.S. 5th Fleet headquarters in Bahrain and a U.S. air base in the region with missiles and drones today. FALSE,” the U.S. Central Command wrote on X.
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TRUTH: All Iranian attacks on American forces failed. U.S. forces remain vigilant and ready to defend against unwarranted Iranian aggression,” it added.
Meanwhile, the US also said that it struck and "disabled an unladen oil tanker" that was sailing towards Iran, as part of Washington's naval blockade on the Strait of Hormuz, the BBC reported. The US Central Command claimed that a US aircraft fired a Hellfire missile into the engine room of the Botswana-flagged M/T vessel, after its crew "ignored repeated warnings.”
On April 12, the US military started enforcing its blockade of all vessels entering and exiting Iranian ports.
The CENTCOM said in a statement that US forces "enforced blockade measures against Botswana-flagged M/T Lexie as it transited international waters toward Kharg Island.”
It added that the ship's crew had failed "to comply with directions from US forces multiple times over a 24-hour period.”
As many as six commercial vessels have been disabled and another 122 redirected since the blockade went into force, according to the CENTCOM.
