ISTANBUL (AA)

Bahrain announced Wednesday that it intercepted and destroyed a number of Iranian aerial attacks targeting the country.

The General Command of the Bahrain Defense Force said in a statement that Iran 'continues its systematic hostile approach through its attacks targeting civilians in the kingdom.'

It added that its air defense systems repelled on Wednesday 'a number of Iranian aerial attacks, intercepting and destroying them,' without further details.

In contrast, Iran's official news agency IRNA quoted the Revolutionary Guard as saying in a statement that Iranian armed forces targeted the central infrastructure of a data center belonging to Amazon in Bahrain.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard claimed that the center represents 'one of the main information exchange nodes for the U.S. military,' according to the same source.

For days, the United States has been launching successive waves of strikes on sites inside Iran, while Tehran responds with missile and drone attacks on military bases, installations, and sites it says are linked to Washington in regional countries, including Bahrain.

The escalation comes despite Washington and Tehran signing a memorandum of understanding last June that included a cessation of hostilities and the start of negotiations to reach a broader agreement.

However, U.S. President Donald Trump announced on July 8 that the ceasefire had ended, after tankers in the Strait of Hormuz were subjected to attacks that Washington accused Tehran of being behind, leading the United States to resume its strikes inside Iran amid escalating Iranian responses in the region.

Washington demands that Tehran stop attacking ships and ensure freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, while Iran insists on subjecting the passage of ships to a mechanism it regulates through the waterway overlooking its coasts, which has exacerbated fears of disruption to oil and gas exports from the region.