India, Nov. 16 -- Blasts rang out over Bahrain in the early hours of Sunday morning, air raid sirens activated across the Gulf island kingdom, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed it had launched six drones at a US military radar installation, the second Iranian strike on a Gulf country in the space of 72 hours, and a sharp signal that the period of relative quiet that had held since early September was emphatically over.

"The US air defence radar system at the Al-Riffa helicopter base in Bahrain was targeted by six drones belonging to the IRGC Aerospace Force," the Guards said in a statement posted by state broadcaster on Telegram.

The attack reportedly unfolded on Sunday morning, 15 November, when Iranian forces launched ...