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Explosions were heard Friday in Iran's southern port city of Jask, east of the Strait of Hormuz, according to the official IRNA news agency, hours after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed a U.S. radar strike in Bahrain.
IRNA, citing local sources, reported the blasts but provided no immediate explanation for their cause. No impacts were reported in Jask or elsewhere in Hormozgan province, the agency added.
The IRGC announced Friday that it had targeted and destroyed a U.S. early-warning radar system in Bahrain, describing the operation as retaliation for an attack on a telecommunications tower in the southern Iranian city of Sirik.
The claim followed reports by IRNA a day earlier that Sirik had come under an "enemy" strike.
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) reported that American forces intercepted two Iranian attack drones heading toward Bahrain, with no injuries or damage recorded.
The U.S. military did not confirm the destruction of its radar installation claimed by Tehran.
Bahrain hosts the headquarters of the US Navy's Fifth Fleet in Manama, which oversees American naval operations across the Middle East.
Jask is a coastal city in Iran's Hormozgan province, overlooking the Gulf of Oman and sitting outside the Strait of Hormuz. Its location gives Iran access to the Arabian Sea without requiring ships to pass through the narrow waterway.
Iran has also invested in oil infrastructure around Jask to reduce its reliance on the Strait. The country inaugurated the Goreh-Jask pipeline and an oil export terminal there in 2021, aiming to move crude from its southern oil fields to the Gulf of Oman.
The pipeline was designed to carry up to 1 million barrels per day, providing an alternative route for Iranian crude exports if shipping through Hormuz becomes impossible. However, the infrastructure has yet to become a fully operational export route.
The terminal handled a test shipment in late 2024 but has not recorded further crude exports since then, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
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