Hormuz Strait fully under our control, won’t be opened under Trump’s ‘threatrical gestures’: IRGC

Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has announced that the Strait of Hormuz is ‘decisively and fully’ under the control of its Navy and will not be reopened under ‘the theatrical gestures’ of the US President against the Iranian nation.

US President Donald Trump, in a big claim on April 1, said President of the Iranian ‘new regime’ had asked the US for a ‘ceasefire.’ Trump, however, said that till the ‘ceasefire request’ is considered, the US would be blasting Iran into ‘oblivion’ until Hormuz is ‘open, free and clear.’

Iranian Foreign Ministry dismissed Trump’s claim as ‘false and baseless.’

In a statement, the IRGC detailed a series of missile and drone operations against US and Israeli targets across the region, saying the intensity of Iran’s missile strikes on central Israeli areas and various parts of the Middle East since early April one morning contradicts claims by Tel Aviv and Washington that such attacks have decreased by 90 per cent, according to Iran’s Tasnim news agency.

The IRGC said its naval forces, since ‘dawn on April 1,’ have carried out five large-scale and extensive operations using a combination of Qadeer ballistic and cruise missiles as well as attack drones to destroy key military targets belonging to US and Israeli forces.

In the first strike, two early-warning air defence radar systems used by US forces and stationed on a maritime structure in the waters and islands of the UAE, were destroyed with high precision.

The statement said an oil Israeli tanker, ‘Aqua 1,’ was targeted in the central Persian Gulf and was reported to be on fire following the missile strike.

It said a ‘concealed gathering site’ of US forces outside the perimeter of the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain was struck with drones and several ballistic missiles, according to Tasnim.

A Chinook helicopter preparation centre and equipment storage hangars at Al-Udeiri base were also targeted with ballistic missiles and drones.

The IRGC said multiple waves of attack drones were launched toward the US aircraft carrier group USS Abraham Lincoln in the northern Indian Ocean, and the group had ‘retreated’ from its previous position deeper into the ocean.