DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,
Tehran claims drone strikes on bases in Bahrain and Kuwait, as US strikes Qeshm Island and ports along the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran has claimed attacks on United States military bases in Bahrain and Kuwait and targeted two vessels in the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for renewed US attacks on the country.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it launched drone strikes on Bahrain’s Sheikh Isa airbase and Kuwait’s Ali Al Salem and Ahmad Al-Jaber airbases early on Thursday.
Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list
Two oil tankers that attempted “to illegally pass through” the Strait of Hormuz were also hit, it said.
The IRGC accused the US of “repeated violations” of the April ceasefire and declared the Strait of Hormuz “closed until further notice”. It said all traffic in the waterway, including oil tankers and commercial vessels, would be affected.
The attacks came after the US’s Central Command announced renewed strikes on “multiple targets” inside Iran. The military said the attacks were on President Donald Trump’s orders and “in response to Iran’s unwarranted and continued aggression”.
Iranian state media reported explosions on Qeshm Island and in the cities of Bandar Abbas and Sirik along the Strait of Hormuz.
Blasts also hit the southern city of Kargan, wounding at least two people.
The latest exchange came a day after the two sides traded tit-for-tat strikes over the downing of a US Apache helicopter in the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran said it targeted the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, the Ali Al Salem airbase in Kuwait, as well as an airbase in Azraq, Jordan, on Wednesday. The US, meanwhile, bombed Qeshm Island as well as the ports of Sirik, Jask and Bandar Abbas.
Tehran said the US attacks destroyed two water reservoirs and damaged a telecommunications tower.
At the White House on Wednesday, Trump accused Iran of stalling negotiations for a peace deal and threatened to hit the country “very hard”.
“We’ll see what happens with the deal. We were really close to a deal. But they keep tapping us along. They keep playing us for suckers,” he told reporters.
Earlier in the day, the US president wrote on his Truth Social platform that Iran had taken too long to negotiate a peace deal and “now they will have to pay the price”.
In a subsequent interview with Fox News, he also threatened to strike power plants and bridges in Iran if it was unwilling to sign an agreement.
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian hit back in a post on X.
“Critical infrastructures are the lifeblood of the people. Threats to target them – from transportation networks to the electricity and water industries – are not a show of strength but a sign of desperation in the face of a nation’s will,” he wrote.
“Iran, relying on the knowledge and capabilities of its specialists, national unity, and solidarity, will stand firm against any pressure or threat,” he added.
The US-Iran escalation comes days after Israel and Iran traded fire in their most serious clash since the April ceasefire, which ended weeks of devastating US-Israeli strikes on Iran and Iranian retaliatory attacks across the Gulf.
Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has remained limited ever since, driving up oil and food prices worldwide.
Iran first closed the waterway – through which one-fifth of the world’s energy supply flowed before the war – in the early days of the conflict. It briefly lifted the restrictions before reinstating them after the US imposed a blockade on Iranian ports.
Progress towards a peace deal also remains slow.
The two sides are engaged in indirect talks aimed at securing an interim agreement that would halt hostilities, while deferring Iran’s nuclear programme to future negotiations.
But sticking points remain, with Iran demanding the release of frozen assets and relief from sanctions. Complicating matters further is Israel’s intensifying campaign in Lebanon against the Iranian-backed Hezbollah.
Iran maintains that any peace deal with Washington must include an end to fighting in Lebanon, while Israel insists its campaign there is a separate conflict.