The United States military said on Friday, November 13, that it shot down two Iranian attack drones headed toward Bahrain, denying Iran's claim that it had struck a US early-warning radar system in the kingdom. US Central Command (CENTCOM), the US command covering the region, said there were no injuries and no damage, the Associated Press reported.
Source: Associated Press, Nov 13, 2026
This is a follow-up to the story published earlier on Friday, in which Iran's Revolutionary Guards claimed they had destroyed a US early-warning radar in Bahrain and Washington and Manama had not yet commented. The US military has now commented: it says two Iranian drones were launched toward Bahrain, both were shot down, and no radar was hit. Read the earlier story: Iran says it destroyed a US early-warning radar in Bahrain
"The IRGC launched two one-way attack drones toward Bahrain and both were shot down by US forces. There were no injuries or damage," CENTCOM said in a statement posted on X, according to reports citing the command's post. The Times of Israel reported the same American position, and N12's reporting relayed that both drones were intercepted with no damage and no casualties.
What Iran claimed hours earlier
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said early on Friday that its Aerospace Force had targeted and destroyed a US early-warning radar in Bahrain, in retaliation for what it described as an air attack on a telecommunications tower in Sirik county, in Iran's southern Hormozgan province on the Strait of Hormuz, according to Iranian state media carried by Reuters. Iran's official IRNA news agency cited the Guards' statement, which said the radar attack followed a US strike on a telecommunications pole in the southern port of Sirik. The United States has not claimed any strike on Sirik, and no party has publicly taken responsibility for it.
Source: Reuters, Nov 13, 2026; Associated Press, Nov 13, 2026
What is solid
- CENTCOM, the US regional command, stated on Friday that Iran launched two one-way attack drones toward Bahrain and that US forces shot both down, with no injuries and no damage.
- The IRGC issued a statement early on Friday, carried by Iranian state media, claiming its Aerospace Force destroyed a US early-warning radar in Bahrain in response to an attack on a telecommunications tower in Sirik, Hormozgan province.
- Reuters reported this was Iran's first claim of an attack on US military assets in a Gulf country since early September; AP called it Iran's first report of targeting a facility in Bahrain since September.
- Bahrain's Ministry of Information did not immediately respond to requests for comment, AP reported.
What is only claimed
- Whether any US radar in Bahrain was hit or destroyed: the IRGC says it was destroyed; CENTCOM says both drones were shot down and there was no damage. Neither side has published evidence the other accepts.
- Who attacked the Sirik telecommunications tower that Iran blames for the retaliation: Iran calls it enemy/US aerial aggression; the US has not claimed the strike.
A second Iranian claim in the Strait of Hormuz
In a separate claim on Friday, the Revolutionary Guards said a liquefied petroleum gas tanker struck a naval mine and exploded while trying to sail through the Strait of Hormuz, according to IRNA. The Guards said the vessel had ignored repeated warnings while transiting the eastern part of the strait. That claim could not be independently verified, AP reported, and Awaaz Punjab reports it only as the Guards' claim.
Source: Associated Press, Nov 13, 2026
Background: a war in its ninth month, and the Fifth Fleet in Bahrain
The exchange comes in a conflict that began on February 28, when the United States and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran, and has since spread across the region. During the air war, Iran targeted US bases in neighbouring Arab states, including Bahrain, in retaliation for US strikes, and Iran has since routinely targeted oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, the critical waterway for international oil shipments, AP reported. Bahrain hosts the headquarters of the US Navy's Fifth Fleet at Naval Support Activity Bahrain, the command centre for American naval operations across the Gulf, the Arabian Sea and the Red Sea.
Source: Associated Press, Nov 13, 2026; Reuters, Nov 13, 2026
The drone exchange also landed within hours of two hardening signals from President Donald Trump. On Thursday he wrote on Truth Social, "We don't need a deal with Iran. Those days have long since passed," and directed Vice President JD Vance to turn his full attention to domestic issues instead of the Iran file — a development Awaaz Punjab reported on November 12. In a separate interview reported on Friday, Trump said Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain had asked him to hold off on further large-scale strikes on Iran, and that he would have struck again without their request; none of the five governments has confirmed that account.
Source: Reuters via BusinessWorld, Nov 13, 2026; Al Jazeera via Trends MENA, Nov 13, 2026
Trump's statement that Gulf allies asked him to hold off strikes on Iran is covered here: Trump says Saudi Arabia and four Gulf states asked him to hold off strikes on Iran
Why it matters in the Gulf — and for Punjabi and Indian workers there
Oil prices edged lower on Friday, putting the market on course for a second consecutive weekly decline as traders weighed the possibility of diplomatic de-escalation against continuing threats to shipping, according to Gulf reporting on Friday. Oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz were running 26 percent below pre-war levels as of November 2026, according to International Energy Agency data cited in Gulf reporting. Bahrain and the other Gulf states are home to large Indian and Punjabi workforces, and any confirmed strike on a US installation in Bahrain — or a US decision to resume large-scale attacks on Iran — would put those workers, and the air and sea routes they depend on, under immediate new pressure. On the verified US account, Friday's attack caused no damage and no injuries.
Source: Dubai Standard, Nov 13, 2026; IEA data via House of Saud, Nov 13, 2026
What happens next: watch for a statement from Bahrain's government, which had not commented when AP filed; for any Iranian response to CENTCOM's denial — Tehran has not, in the reporting reviewed, withdrawn its radar claim; and for whether Washington answers the drone launch with the strikes President Trump says Gulf allies asked him to hold back. For now, the confirmed development is narrow: two drones were launched toward Bahrain, the US says both were shot down, and the radar-destruction claim is disputed by the US military.
Source: Associated Press, Nov 13, 2026