Iran hits back after U.S. warns against retaliation following Hormuz strikes

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced in a series of statements that it carried out retaliatory attacks on multiple U.S. bases in the region following lethal attacks on Iran late on Tuesday.

At the same time, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran is ready to fulfill its commitments under the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding ceasefire deal only if Washington does the same first.

The resumption of back-and-forth attacks between the U.S. and Iran is a sign that mediation efforts by regional countries have not de-escalated tensions.

For the second time in three days, the IRGC said that it struck at the U.S. military bases in Bahrain, Jordan and Erbil in northern neighbouring Iraq with drones and ballistic missiles late Tuesday.

The retaliatory attacks followed the fatal U.S. air raids late on Tuesday on southern Iranian islands and cities that reportedly wounded 70 and killed five civilians, including a young boy attending a wedding ceremony in Sirik in Hormuzgan Province.

“The desperate attacks by the U.S. enemy tighten the grip on the Strait of Hormuz,” the force said in a statement carried by the Sepah News website dedicated to news from the IRGC.

The latest round of exchange of fire came only two days after three Iranian servicemen were killed in a similar cycle of attacks over the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

While the United States continues its blockade of Iran’s southern ports, Iran has kept the Strait linking the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman shut to maritime traffic.

Islamabad Memorandum commitments 

Only hours prior to the renewed flare-up, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that if the U.S. fulfilled its obligations under Islamabad agreement, Iran would also fulfill its commitments.

He made the statement in an interview with the state-owned IRIB TV on the sidelines of the Summit meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan on Tuesday.

“It is not that we will do anything, have done anything, or want to do anything, without them fulfilling their commitments,” said Iran’s top diplomat.

In the latest development, the IRGC Public Relations Department said that two oil tankers, which had “disembarked their crews at the instigation of the U.S. military and were in the hands of U.S. agents to pass through an illegal route”, exploded and were stopped when they ran over a mine.

“The vessels are burning in flames,” Sepah News quoted an IRGC statement as saying.

The IRGC Navy had warned about the risks of crossing the mined passage without following instructions from the Iranian authorities.

“Additional punishments have been foreseen, which will be implemented soon, for shipping companies that, instead of following the legal route, fall prey to the American deception and place their vessels at the disposal of the enemy,” the statement read.

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US-Iran war Hormuz Strikes Washington Islamabad Tehran IRGC