An anti-U.S. billboard that hangs at Palestine Square in Tehran, Iran, features a sentence in Persian that reads "Blood for Blood," on Thursday. Photo by Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA
July 17 (UPI) -- Iran early Friday said it struck a U.S. special operations command center in southeastern Syria, escalating the war over the Strait of Hormuz, as the United States attacked bridges and other urban infrastructure in Iran.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps described the strike in a statement as a "surprise attack" conducted in retaliation for the seven soldiers killed early Wednesday in a U.S. attack on Bampur, near Iranshahr in southeastern Iran.
The elite military unit claimed to have destroyed a U.S. radar system and several special-operations helicopters. It claimed to have killed "a large number" of Americans.
State-run media reported Iran also attacked U.S. bases and assets in Kuwait and Bahrain in retaliation for the U.S. attacks hours earlier. Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting claimed the United States destroyed five bridges around Bandar Abbas near the Strait of Hormuz.
