Rezaei: Iran foiled US ground assault plan
Shafaq News- Tehran
Major General Mohsen Rezaei, military adviser to the Supreme Leader, said Tuesday that Iran had foiled a US plan to launch a ground assault, and that strikes on bridges in the southern province of Hormozgan had been part of an effort to cut off the coastline from its interior.
In an interview with the state-run television, he revealed that the strikes on infrastructure in Hormozgan, in particular the bridges and roads linking the province to neighboring Fars, were intended to sever the Strait of Hormuz region from Iran's interior. "A miscalculation by the commanders of US Central Command led to the failure of their plan.”
On the attacks on US interests in the region, Rezaei said the strikes had inflicted significant damage on a US base in Kuwait, forced the evacuation of Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), and prompted the relocation of the US Central Command headquarters from Jordan to Palestine, adding that the Iranian forces had continued operations for two days after the US side halted its own.
In a mid-July interview, Trump said US forces would hit Iranian infrastructure if diplomacy failed, specifying that bridges and power plants would be among the next targets. US Central Command has since carried out repeated nights of strikes that it said were aimed at degrading Iran's ability to threaten commercial shipping in the strait, including an 11th consecutive night of strikes in late July.
In the KRI, Iranian drones struck locations near Erbil, setting off fires and explosions close to the US Consulate during the escalation. The US Embassy raised its travel advisory for Iraq to its highest level and urged American citizens to leave the country.
On Monday, Trump said talks were continuing and represented a final opportunity for a deal. Tehran has denied that negotiations are under way, with its Foreign Ministry saying it is in talks only with Oman over a temporary route through the strait.
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