WANA (Mar 23) – Iran’s Foreign Ministry has accused the United States of carrying out a “false flag” operation following reports that an explosion in Bahrain earlier this month was caused by a U.S. missile rather than an Iranian attack.

 

Responding to statements by Bahraini officials acknowledging that the March 9, 2026 blast in a residential area was the result of a U.S. Patriot missile, Esmaeil Baghaei, spokesperson for Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran, said the incident represents “another example of a false flag scheme designed to smear Iran and provoke its neighbors.”

 

In a post on the social media platform X, Baghaei wrote that the explosion in the Sitra residential area “was not an Iranian drone strike as claimed by” United States Central Command, “but a U.S. Patriot missile.”