Iran threatens to retaliate after US strikes; Khamenei said to declare ‘Death to Israel’ as ‘slogan of the Islamic nation’

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards say they reserve the right to retaliate, after Tehran accused the United States of violating the ceasefire with strikes in Iran’s southern Hormozgan province.

The US military has carried out strikes in southern Iran against targets including boats attempting to lay mines and missile launch sites, in what it described as defensive actions. Iranian media reported early this morning that sounds of explosions were heard in Bandar Abbas in the province.

The IRGC also says air defense units have downed a US drone and fired at another drone and a fighter jet, which they say had entered Iranian airspace over the Gulf region.

In comments posted on his Telegram channel on the occasion of the annual hajj pilgrimage, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei purportedly says: “The clock cannot be turned back, and the nations and lands of the region will no longer be a shield for American bases.”

“From now on, the slogans ‘Death to America’ and ‘Death to Israel’ will be the slogans of the Islamic nation and the oppressed people of the world, especially the youth,” the statement adds.