TEHRAN — The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) said on Saturday it had launched the 26th wave of “Operation True Promise 4,” firing a combination of drones and missiles at targets across Israeli occupied lands and at U.S. military assets in the region, as tensions escalated sharply following threats from U.S. President Donald Trump that Iran would be “hit very hard.”
In a statement, the IRGC said the latest attacks were carried out under the code name “Ya Haidar Karrar” and involved a coordinated drone–missile strike targeting sites “from the north to the south of the occupied territories.”
The force said new-generation Emad and Qadr missiles as well as multiple Kheibar warheads were used in the operation and that all launched missiles struck their designated targets.
The IRGC said damage inflicted on enemy radar systems in earlier waves of the campaign had made targeting easier and allowed Iranian missiles to reach their objectives with greater accuracy.
Trump earlier on Saturday threatened. “Today Iran will be hit very hard,” he said in a post on Truth Social. “Under serious consideration for complete destruction and certain death, because of Iran’s bad behavior, are areas and groups of people that were not considered for targeting up until this moment in time.”
Iran’s central Khatam al-Anbiya headquarters said U.S. and Israeli bases and interests were the primary targets of Iranian attacks and warned that any location used as a launch point for operations against Iran would be struck.
“Any point that becomes the origin of aggression against Iran will face a heavy response,” a spokesperson for the headquarters said, adding that U.S. and Israeli military positions on land, at sea and in the air across the region were considered legitimate targets.
Iranian officials said the country respects the sovereignty of neighboring states and has not attacked them, but warned that bases used by the United States or Israel within those countries could be targeted if they are involved in operations against Iran.
Senior military spokesperson Abolfazl Shekarchi said Iran has
already struck facilities used by U.S. forces for attacks on Iranian territory and that the armed forces will continue powerful strikes.
“Countries that do not place their airspace or territory at the disposal of the enemy will not be targeted,” he said.
Iranian military officials also reported casualties among U.S. forces. Colonel Ebrahim Zolfaghari, a spokesperson for the armed forces’ central command, said that during the past 24 hours dozens of U.S. soldiers and officers had been killed or wounded in strikes across the region.
He said 21 personnel were killed and many others injured among the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet forces, while around 200 people were killed or wounded at Al Dhafra air base in the United Arab Emirates. Iranian forces also targeted a tanker linked to U.S. assets in the northern Gulf, he added.
The IRGC later confirmed that a commercial tanker named “Louise P,” sailing under the flag of the Marshall Islands and described by Iran as an American asset, was hit by an explosive drone in the middle of the Gulf.
Arab media reported explosions at U.S. bases in several locations in the region. Iraqi outlets said blasts were heard at a U.S. base in Erbil, while other reports described explosions in the Juffair area of Bahrain, home to the U.S. Fifth Fleet headquarters, and at American military facilities in the United Arab Emirates.
Separately, media in Iraq said areas near the town of Qayyarah outside Mosul were struck in an air attack attributed to the United States and Israel, targeting facilities linked to Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces. No official casualty figures were immediately released.
Iran’s army said its air defense network shot down 13 attacking drones over the past 24 hours, including MQ-9, Hermes and Orbiter models. According to the army, the drones were intercepted in multiple provinces including northwestern, western and southern regions as well as near the cities of Isfahan, Kerman and Tehran.
The military said a total of 82 hostile drones had been destroyed since the start of the conflict.
Iranian Defense Ministry spokesperson Reza Talaei-Nik said the country is prepared for a prolonged and attritional war, adding that strategic reserves of weapons and ammunition had already been secured.
“We are ready for a long-term, sustained battle,” he said, adding that Iran has only deployed part of its capabilities so far and continued to introduce new cruise missiles, attack drones and other weapons into the battlefield.
Talaei-Nik said Iranian strikes have damaged U.S. and Israeli bases and forced some naval vessels to withdraw from the region while degrading radar and air defense systems.
Israeli media reported that the country’s military has acknowledged difficulties in detecting incoming missiles launched from Iran. The Haaretz newspaper said the army admitted warning notifications had sometimes been sent only moments before sirens were activated.
The so-called Israeli home front command said the new types of threats and operational conditions meant authorities could not guarantee any fixed time between alerts and sirens and that in some cases warnings might arrive only shortly before or not at all.
The newspaper said Iranian strikes targeting radar infrastructure and other defense facilities were aimed at blinding U.S. and allied detection networks in the region and disrupting Israel’s early-warning systems.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the United States has escalated the war by attacking critical infrastructure, accusing Washington of striking a desalination facility on Qeshm Island.
In a post on social media platform X, Araghchi said the attack disrupted water supplies to around 30 villages and described targeting vital infrastructure as a “dangerous act with serious consequences.”
Iranian authorities said student and teacher casualties have also been recorded in the war. The Education Ministry said 195 students and teachers were martyred in attacks across several provinces including Hormozgan, Fars, East Azerbaijan, Ilam, Qazvin and Tehran, while 154 others were wounded.
The ministry said 68 schools had been damaged in the strikes and that online classes would begin from Sunday to ensure continuity of education.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah said it had launched missile attacks against Israeli military positions, including the newly established Balat base in southern Lebanon and the David base in northern Israeli occupied lands.
Israeli media reported that air raid sirens sounded near the Lebanese border and that at least one missile struck northern Israeli occupied lands.
Reference:kayhan.ir
