The commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Aerospace Force issued a stark warning to the United States on Thursday, threatening to turn the entire region into hell if Washington continued its military operations in and around the Strait of Hormuz, Iran's semi-official Tasnim News Agency reported.
"You make the sacred Strait of Hormuz unsafe?! We will make the region hell for you from all over Iran," Brigadier General Seyed Majid Mousavi said. "This is the response to the Americans' boldness in the region, God willing," he added, according to Tasnim.
The warning came after fresh US strikes on multiple cities in southern Iran. In response, Iran's top military command announced the complete closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital chokepoint through which roughly one-fifth of global petroleum passes, Tasnim reported.
In a separate statement, Mousavi has reiterated a warning to employees of US and Israeli industrial companies in the region to leave following attacks on Iran's production sites.
“You tested us once before; the world saw again that you yourselves started playing with fire and attacking infrastructure,” Mousavi said, as per Al Jazeera.
“This time, the equation will no longer be an eye for an eye; wait and see! Employees of industrial companies associated with the Americans and the Zionist regime should quickly leave their workplaces to avoid endangering their lives,” he added.
The IRGC's aerospace and naval divisions subsequently carried out coordinated strikes on 18 American military targets across the region, Tasnim said. The IRGC said the targeted sites included US military installations at the Ali Al-Salem and Ahmed Al-Jaber bases in Kuwait and Sheikh Isa Air Base in Bahrain.
Kuwait activated its air defence systems and said they were intercepting hostile aerial targets, while Bahrain sounded alarm sirens and urged citizens to seek shelter.
US Central Command said its forces had carried out additional self-defence strikes on Iranian military surveillance capabilities, communication systems and air defence sites, firing precision munitions at the direction of the Commander in Chief.
US President Trump warned Iran that bombing would resume if Tehran failed to sign a deal, saying the US would "bomb the s**t out of them" should no agreement be reached.
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