Iran strikes back at US forces and Bahrain as the ceasefire frays
The confrontation that reopened this week between Washington and Tehran widened on June 27. After US forces struck Iranian missile and drone storage sites and radar installations along Iran’s southern coastline, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it hit US military installations in the region in response, warning that “in the event of repeated aggression, our response will be more extensive than this.”
Bahrain’s foreign ministry separately condemned what it called an Iranian drone attack on its territory as a violation of its sovereignty, and a tanker in the area was struck by an unidentified projectile, with its crew reported safe. No casualties were reported from the strikes themselves.
The escalation follows the June 26 US strike on Iran, which Washington said was a response to a drone attack two days earlier on the Singapore-flagged Ever Lovely near Oman’s coast. Each side now accuses the other of breaching the 60-day memorandum of understanding signed June 15, which lifted a US naval blockade and reopened the Strait of Hormuz while negotiators pursue a broader nuclear deal. The agreement’s core bargain — safe passage through the strait — is precisely what is unraveling. By drawing Bahrain, home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, into the exchange, Iran has signaled it can put American basing across the Gulf at risk, raising the cost of further US strikes and narrowing the room left for the memorandum to hold.