A SPOKESMAN for the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) said yesterday that more than 650 US military personnel were killed and wounded in the first two days of Iran’s retaliatory Operation True Promise 4 against US military installations and warships across West Asia.
‘In the first two days of the war, 650 American troops were killed and wounded,’ Brigadier General Ali Mohammad Naeini stated.
He emphasised that it was natural for the US military to deny or conceal the casualties; nevertheless, Iranian intelligence as well as all field reports, confirm the toll.
He said that the Iranian strikes, which included missile and drone attacks, against US naval assets and military headquarters in Bahrain, forced the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier to flee towards the southern Indian Ocean.
He highlighted that Iranian forces have also managed to inflict heavy losses on US military facilities in the Persian Gulf region.
The spokesman said Iranian missiles and drones had repeatedly hit the headquarters of the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet in Bahrain.
A fresh wave of Iranian retaliatory strikes crippled a major US air base in Bahrain, with strikes destroying command centres as Iranian forces continue launching firm response to the US-Israeli aggression.
According to Naeini, 160 US servicemen were killed and wounded in one of the strikes, when Iranian Armed Forces targeted a key US military site in the Persian Gulf kingdom.
Furthermore, a US Navy’s MST combat support vessel suffered heavy damage after being hit by Iranian naval missiles.
The IRGC spokesman also noted that Iranian naval units had fired four cruise missiles at the USS Abraham Lincoln, which was deployed some 250 to 300 kilometres off the coast of Chabahar in southeastern Iran.
Elsewhere in his remarks yesterday, the IRGC spokesman praised the scale of Iran’s retaliatory strikes as ‘more powerful and crushing’ compared to those conducted in the final days of the last June 12-day war.
Iranian missiles have all been updated, and are now much more sophisticated than those employed in Operation True Promise 3.
Naeini described the strike power of the missiles as unbelievable and much beyond the calculations of the enemies, and Iranian missile capabilities ‘have bewildered the foes’.
He assured the Iranian nation that Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran will diligently defend the country, and that the major victory is on the horizon.
Meanwhile, Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters of the Iranian Armed Forces said Iran’s retaliatory attacks are exclusively directed against Israeli and US assets and that Tehran remains committed to safeguarding the national security and interests of neighbouring countries.
In a statement the headquarters said the ‘collapsing Zionist regime’ and the ‘criminal United States’ have no choice but to accept defeat in the imposed war against Iran.
- The Iranian Red Crescent said yesterday that 780 people have been killed by the US-Israeli aggressors since Saturday.
Funerals of 165 schoolgirls
The funeral of the victims of Saturday’s deadly strike on the elementary school in the southern Iranian province of Hormozgan took place yesterday, as grieving families gathered to bid farewell to the 165 children killed in the attack.
Mourners filled the streets carrying small coffins and photographs of the young victims, who perished as a result of the atrocity against the Shajareh Tayyebeh School in Minab, as cries and prayers echoed throughout the city.
The ceremony came three days after the US-Israeli terrorist strike that devastated the facility, leaving 165 children dead and nearly 100 others injured.
The entirely civilian two-storey building housed a boys’ school on the ground floor and a girls’ school on the first floor.
President Masoud Pezeshkian offered condolences over the ‘heartbreaking tragedy following the treacherous attack that has grieved the hearts of all Iranians and free people.
‘This inhuman, brutal act is another dark page in the endless record of the aggressors’ crimes against this land, which will never be erased from the historical memory of our nation.’
