JNN 8th July 2026 Tehran : The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) says it struck 85 US military targets in Bahrain and Kuwait with missiles and drones in an initial response to American aggression against Iranian territory.
The U.S. military attacked Iran early Wednesday after it said Tehran struck three ships in the Strait of Hormuz, part of an American effort that also revoked the Islamic Republic’s Oil Sales license, ability to openly sell crude oil in the world market. Iran retaliated with strikes targeting Bahrain and Kuwait.
The IRGC, in a statement issued Wednesday, said the strikes hit facilities at Port Salman, the US Fifth Fleet’s area in Bahrain, and Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait. It also announced the downing of an MQ-9 drone, saying the aircraft attempted to interfere with the operation before it was shot down.
IRGC spokesman Brigadier General Hossein Mohammadi said that the drone was shot down over the southern province of Bushehr following overnight US airstrikes.
“Following the aerial aggression by the terrorist US military in the early hours of today, an MQ-9 drone was hit and brought down by fire from the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps’ air defense system over the skies of Khormuj in Bushehr province,” he said Wednesday.
“The era of bullying and extortion is over,” Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf wrote on X. “It leads nowhere. We don’t fold.”
The announcement came after the US launched a fresh wave of military strikes on “a number of coastal bases and non-military stations” in Iran’s southern Hormozgan province and Mahshahr, which the IRGC said “openly violated the ceasefire” and “trampled the Islamabad MoU “.
“In the initial response to this aggression, the naval and aerospace forces of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps, in a joint missile and drone operation, struck 85 locations of important US military facilities at Salman Port, the US Fifth Fleet area in Bahrain, and Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait,” the statement said.
The U.S. military’s Central Command said American forces launched the strikes , It said it hit Iranian targets including air defense systems, radars and over 60 small boats used by Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. Those boats have been key in harassing ships in the strait.
The U.S. military remains “postured and prepared to hold Iran accountable when the agreement is not adhered to or obeyed,” it added, saying this round of attacks had ended.
The funeral commemoration of the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenai , which ends Thursday, had been thought to be a period of lower tensions — though mourners have repeatedly called for the killings of U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Iran acknowledged the strikes, but gave no word on any losses. Iranian state media reported explosions in Bandar Abbas, Qeshm and Sirik. State media later reported about an attack on Bandar Mahshahr killing one Guard member, as well as attacks on Bushehr.
The US attacks, the statement said, were an attempt to overshadow massive funeral processions in Iran and Iraq for martyred Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei, which represented a major political defeat for Washington.
Tehran repeatedly has declared that only its approved route through the strait is safe and is suspected of attacking other ships that have used the Oman route.
The U.S. also revoked a license that authorized the sale of Iranian oil as part of the interim deal. That had allowed Iran for the first time in years to conduct oil sales openly for U.S. dollars. Iran long had been suspected of selling sanctioned crude oil at below-market prices to China.
“Following the epic created by the great Iranian nation in the unprecedented, magnificent and enemy-shattering funeral procession for the unique figure of the era and the martyred Leader of the Islamic nation, the aggressor US regime, whose defeat is becoming more apparent by the day and which regarded the global reflection of the massive, million-strong uprising of the proud Iraqi nation in the historic farewell to the martyred mujahid leader as an even greater defeat, once again repeated its habit of breaking its commitments.
“In a panic and in an attempt to overshadow this historic event, the child-killing and terrorist US military launched airstrikes in the early hours of this morning against a number of coastal bases and civilian stations along the coast of Hormozgan Province and in Mahshahr, thereby openly violating the ceasefire and trampling the Islamabad understanding.”
Ayatollah Khamenei was martyred on February 28 on the first day of the launch of the latest round of unprovoked US-Israeli aggression against Iran.
The main funeral procession in Tehran was held on Monday, followed by ceremonies in Qom on Tuesday, while special farewell and funeral ceremonies are taking place on Wednesday in the holy Iraqi cities of Najaf and Karbala.
The final funeral ceremony will be held in Mashhad on Thursday, where Ayatollah Khamenei will be laid to rest at the shrine of Imam Reza (AS), the eighth Shia Imam.
