Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had attacked U.S. bases in Kuwait and Bahrain in retaliation for U.S. strikes and fired at four tankers trying to cross the strait without its permission.
DUBAI/WASHINGTON: U.S. forces struck Iranian coastal radar sites on Saturday after shooting down drones launched by Iran toward the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. military said, in the latest escalation complicating efforts to end the war between the two countries.
The U.S. military believed the four Iranian drones were targeting regional maritime traffic, a U.S. official told Reuters. U.S. Central Command said on X that the U.S. then struck Iran’s surveillance sites in Goruk and Qeshm Island, both on the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s foreign ministry said the U.S. action broke an April 8 ceasefire, adding that such repeated violations showed Washington had no intention of reducing tensions. It warned that the United States would bear responsibility for the consequences of its “illegal actions”.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had attacked U.S. bases in Kuwait and Bahrain in retaliation for U.S. strikes and fired at four tankers trying to cross the strait without its permission.
Kuwait’s army said on Saturday it engaged seven ballistic missiles that passed over residential areas, resulting in material damage but no casualties. In Bahrain, sirens sounded and residents were urged to seek shelter.
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Kuwait and Bahrain condemned the strikes. Iran later said it had hit U.S. bases in both countries with ballistic missiles, but the U.S. military said six missiles were intercepted and a seventh did not reach its target.
The U.S. and Iran have been engaged in largely indirect negotiations for an interim deal to halt the three-month-old war that would leave issues including Iran’s nuclear programme to further negotiations.
But a deal has remained elusive as the two sides have periodically skirmished.
Tehran wants access to billions of dollars in oil revenue, waivers on sanctions on crude exports, the lifting of a U.S. blockade on its ports and leverage over the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has effectively blocked the waterway, where about a fifth of global oil traffic transited before the war.
Iranian state media reported that Mohsin Naqvi, the interior minister of Pakistan, which has been mediating an end to the conflict, arrived in Tehran on Saturday for talks with Iranian officials including Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi.
A Pakistani source said Naqvi would carry a message from Pakistan to the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei.
U.S. President Donald Trump is facing mounting domestic political pressure due to rising gas prices to bring the unpopular war to an end. He told NBC that while most of Iran’s drone and missile manufacturing facilities had been destroyed, the Iranians still had access to about a fifth of their missiles.
“They have some missiles, they have some drones. I would say percentage wise, maybe 21%-22% of their missiles. It’s a lot of missiles, but it’s not what it was when we first attacked,” Trump told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” program, according to excerpts released by the network on Friday.
Asked why Iran’s leaders were not more inclined to strike a deal, if they were as desperate as he has portrayed them, Trump said:”Because they are strong. They’re proud. There are things they never thought they’d be doing that they’re going to have to do, they’ve got no choice, and it takes a little while.”
After the U.S. and Israel launched the war against Iran on February 28, Tehran attacked Gulf states hosting U.S. bases and largely stopped shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
Reuters