Iran’s notorious Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) paramilitary warned residents of seven Middle Eastern countries to keep their distance from US interests — including American-owned hotels, banks, and corporate headquaters.
“To all citizens and residents of the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Syria,” the IRGC wrote in a message on the social media platform Telegram. “For your safety, you are urged to immediately stay away from military and security bases, facilities, and headquarters, as well as locations where U.S. forces are deployed. Do not approach any area witnessing military movements or exceptional security measures.
“Immediately maintain a distance of at least 500 meters (1,640 feet) from any covert or concealed accommodations used by U.S. military personnel,” the message continued. “These locations include American hotels, American banks, American companies, high-rise towers, properties owned by the Trump family, and investments associated with them.”
President Trump has developments or planned projects in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar.
The IRGC also claimed responsibility Friday for an attack on a US base in Udairi, Kuwait, which it claimed set ablaze three ammunition and storage sheds, destroying them. It also claimed to have struck and damaged a watchtower for the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet, based in Bahrain.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) did not respond to inquiries about the claims. Bahrain said it intercepted and shot down Iranian aerial attacks on Friday, but did not say if there were any casualties or damage.
Elsewhere, US-led forces shot down five explosive-laden drones Friday over the city of Erbil in northern Iraq, according to security officials. No injuries or damage were reported.
An Associated Press journalist heard at least seven blasts in the city, the capital of Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region, and saw at least four plumes of black smoke rising from areas near or inside a base at the city’s airport that hosts US forces. Flights continued as normal at the airport, the state-run Iraqi News Agency reported, citing the facility’s director.
A small contingent of US military advisers is based in Iraq, many of them in Erbil.
Meanwhile, Jordan’s armed forces said they had downed seven Iranian missiles and six drones Friday.
The attacks by Iran followed a 13th consecutive night of US airstrikes that hit an IRGC naval base in northern Iran, according to the semiofficial news outlets Fars and ISNA. Blasts were also reported on Qeshm Island, a base for naval assets including drone boats that Iran can use to attack vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, as well as in Isfahan province, home to a major Iranian air base and one of Iran’s nuclear sites.
More strikes reportedly hit Iran’s southwest Khuzestan province and southern Fars province.
CENTCOM said the latest barrage was designed to “further degrade Iran’s ability to threaten civilian mariners and commercial vessels transiting regional waters” as the Americans push to regain control over the strait, through which one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas transited in peacetime.
With Post wires
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