TEHERAN .
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has claimed its navy hit a US tanker in the northern Gulf this morning, noting that military and commercial vessels belonging to the US, Israel and European countries that support them “will not be allowed to pass through”.
“If they are observed, they will certainly be hit,” IRGC said.
The group also reiterated that, under international laws and wartime conditions, Iran believes it has the right to control passage through the Strait of Hormuz.
“We had previously said that, based on international laws and resolutions, in times of war, the Islamic Republic of Iran will have the right to control the passage through the Strait of Hormuz,” IRGC said, Iran’s Tasnim News reports.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Intelligence Ministry claims it worked with the IRGC to preemptively strike against US and Israeli-backed separatist groups who were plotting to breach Iran’s western borders and wage “terrorist attacks”.
In a statement carried by the Tasnim news agency, the ministry said the Iranian forces hit many of the separatists’ positions and destroyed their facilities, “inflicting heavy losses on them”.
It added that Iranian forces are cooperating with “noble Kurds” to thwart the “Israeli-American” plan to attack Iranian soil.
Earlier, Iran’s Press TV reported that Iranian forces had launched an operation against “anti-Iran separatist forces” in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of neighbouring Iraq.