There are statements about military capability and there are statements about military capability that Iran tests within the same news cycle, and Trump’s assertion that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has lost up to 90 percent of its weapons capabilities due to US strikes was tested Friday when Iran claimed a bold attack on a US airbase at Sheik Isa Air Base in Bahrain, which is the sixth consecutive day of military exchanges between two countries that signed a ceasefire 30 days ago.
US Central Command confirmed Friday that the sixth consecutive day of US strikes against Iranian military targets was underway, having expanded the campaign into northern Iran on Thursday, per the Fox News live blog updated at 3:04 a.m. EDT today. As of Thursday, US forces had redirected three commercial vessels attempting to avoid the US naval blockade of Iranian ports, which resumed Monday at 4 p.m. ET and which the Joint Maritime Information Centre simultaneously described as having no required fee while Trump was simultaneously describing a 20 percent transit fee, in a policy communication effort that has been producing headlines rather than clarity.
Iran’s claim of a bold attack on the US airbase in Bahrain arrives on the same morning Trump said the IRGC has lost 90 percent of its weapons, which is the specific arithmetic that produces the obvious question about what the remaining 10 percent is capable of, and which Iran appears to have answered with a strike on American military infrastructure. Trump said the IRGC has lost up to 90 percent. Iran struck a US airbase. Both claims are now in the public record on the same Friday morning.
The exchange is the sixth consecutive day of mutual military action between the United States and Iran, which signed a memorandum of understanding at Versailles on June 17 describing a 60-day roadmap to a nuclear agreement. That roadmap has now produced 30 days of ceasefire and 6 days of resumed hostilities, which is a pace of conflict resolution that the roadmap’s architects did not specify.
The US airbase at Sheik Isa in Bahrain hosts the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet and is one of the most significant American military installations in the Gulf. Iran claimed it. The Department of Defense has not confirmed or denied casualties. The roadmap has 30 days remaining.
When the country whose weapons capability is 90 percent destroyed claims a bold attack on a US airbase and the US has not confirmed what was hit, what exactly does 90 percent destroyed mean?
Sources
Fox News: Iran claims bold attack on US airbase and more top headlines
Fox News Live: US-Iran war July 17
HuffPost: U.S. Launches New Strikes On Iran, Revokes Oil Sales Permit After 3 Ships Attacked In Strait Of Hormuz
