Iran says it struck U.S. military radar in Bahrain

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Friday (November 13, 2026) said it had “destroyed” a U.S. military early-warning radar in Bahrain, in retaliation for a U.S. strike on a telecommunications tower in Sirik, southern Iran.

“An hour ago, in response to the enemy’s air attack on a telecommunications tower in Sirik, the IRGC’s aerospace fighters targeted and destroyed the early-warning radar of the American aggressors on the islam of Bahrain,” the IRGC said in its statement. 

It added that the attack was “a serious warning to the aggressor enemy to end air mischief and oil smuggling in the Strait of Hormuz”.

The U.S. military in recent days had carried out limited air strikes on Qeshm island and other parts of southern Iran near the strait, which it said were “defensive in nature”.

October saw a record spike in maritime attacks in the Strait of Hormuz with nearly three dozen tankers being hit. The IRGC says the strait is closed, while the U.S. Navy claims that it has opened a southern route for commercial vessels to exit and enter the critical waterway, while maintaining its “ironclad blockade” of Iranian ports. In the first week of November, at least six vessels came under attack in the strait, according to the U.K. Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO). The U.S. says its strikes in southern Iran were aimed at neutralising the threats the IRGC posed to maritime traffic. 

“In case of repeated violations and aggressions, the IRGC’s air force is on full alert for borderless confrontation,” the Guards said in the statement. 

The latest confrontation comes hours after U.S. President Donald Trump pulled Vice President J.D. Vance off talks with Iran, saying the U.S. did not want a deal with Iran. “Those days have long since passed. We have got their money, hundreds of billions of dollars, and we have got their strait,” he wrote in a social media post, after diplomatic efforts mediated by Qatar failed to reach any breakthrough. 

Also read | Is Trump’s ‘no-war, no-peace’ plan on Iran sustainable? 

Iran wants the U.S. to meet its conditions, including removal of the blockade, unfreezing of its assets and war reparation, to reopen the strait and bring the nuclear issue back to the table. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had said earlier this week that Iran’s demands were “outrageous and ridiculous and really not realistic”.    

Before the November 3 U.S. midterm elections, Mr. Trump had said that he would decide whether he should “destroy” Iran based on the outcome of the diplomatic outcomes. But after the midterm, in which his Republican party suffered a massive defeat, Mr. Trump signalled that he was stepping back from renewed conflict.

Immediately after the results, Vice President J.D. Vance had blamed the war on Iran as the main reason for the Republican rout. On November 10, Mr. Trump said he would maintain the status quo on Iran — no immediate military escalation — but added that the naval blockade would stay in place. Tehran, on the other side, vowed to break the status quo.   

On Friday (November 13, 2026), Iran’s chief of the general staff Maj. Gen. Ali Abdollahi said any miscalculation by the U.S. and Israel will be met with “devastating strikes”. “We warn the United States and the Zionist regime once again that the previous slaps were only the beginning of the story, and in the event of any new miscalculation, far more lethal blows await them,” he stated.