Bahrain intercepts Iranian aerial attacks as Tehran says it attacked US base

By Jana Choukeir and Yomna Ehab

Nov 15 (Reuters) – Bahrain intercepted and destroyed several Iranian aerial attacks, it said on Sunday, while Tehran said it had struck a US military base in the Gulf kingdom amid uncertainty over a deal to end the US-Israeli war on Iran.

The first such interceptions by Bahraini air defences since September followed two warnings of potential threats, urging residents to seek shelter.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had attacked a US military base in Bahrain in retaliation for “hostile US actions”, Iran’s Fars news agency reported.

The Bahraini military said its air defences had intercepted several Iranian aerial attacks before they reached their targets, accusing Tehran of continuing its “systematic hostile approach” towards the kingdom.

The Revolutionary Guards said they had launched six drones targeting US air defence radar at the Al-Rifaa helicopter base in Bahrain, Iranian state-run Press TV reported. There was no immediate confirmation from US or Bahraini authorities.

Bahrain, home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, urged citizens and residents to remain calm and proceed to the nearest safe location, the interior ministry said. 

Two days earlier the Revolutionary Guards said they had attacked a US early-warning radar facility in Bahrain. The US military denied this, saying it had intercepted two Iranian drones without any damage.

Diplomatic efforts to end the almost nine-month conflict have yet to produce a breakthrough, with sporadic attacks continuing despite a broader lull in fighting between the US and Iran.

The war began with US and Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28 and subsequently spread across the region, with Tehran launching missile and drone attacks on US military bases in Gulf countries.

President Donald Trump has said in recent days that he might hold off from attacking Iran if the US faces no new provocations from Tehran or the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen, but that he would maintain a US naval blockade, Reuters reported on Saturday.

On another front, however, the Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition fighting them have continued to exchange attacks, with the coalition saying on Sunday that it had intercepted two Houthi ballistic missiles launched towards Saudi capital Riyadh and three drones in the kingdom’s oil-rich Eastern Province.

(Reporting by Yomna Ehab and Jana ChoukeirEditing by Jamie Freed, William Mallard and David Goodman)