Tahran
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) said on Wednesday they had targeted US military sites in Bahrain and Kuwait and that they had shot down a US MQ-9 drone attempting to interfere in the operation. Bahrain’s army later said it had thwarted Iranian attacks.
The US had earlier unleashed new military strikes and revoked a licence allowing Iran to sell oil in response to attacks on three tankers in the strait.
The US Central Command said more than 60 small boats used by the IRGC were among the targets hit in an operation it said was intended to impose a heavy cost on Iran for strikes on shipping in violation of the ceasefire.
“The unwarranted aggression by Iranian forces is a clear and dangerous violation of the ceasefire and undermines freedom of navigation,” CENTCOM said in a statement.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte told reporters before the NATO summit that the new attacks by the US on Iran were “absolutely necessary”.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas later said on X: “The exchanges of fire between the US and Iran further complicate already fraught talks to end the war. Iran’s attacks on Bahrain and Kuwait are unacceptable.”
Iran’s top joint military command, Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, condemned the US strikes as a “blatant act of aggression,” threatened a “crushing response,” and warned that Tehran would not allow US interference in the management of the strait.
A top Iranian negotiator, parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, accused the US of breaching the ceasefire agreement. He cited not only the latest US military strikes, but renewed oil sanctions, violations of Iranian “adjustments” in the Strait of Hormuz, and Israeli attacks against Lebanon.
“The era of bullying and extortion is over,” Ghalibaf said in a post on X. “We don’t fold.”
Iranian media earlier reported explosions in Iran’s main oil hub of Kharg Island, on Qeshm Island and in the southern port cities of Sirik and Bandar Abbas.
Iran’s Press TV reported several blasts were heard in southern Kharg Island. CENTCOM made no mention of Kharg Island, from which Iran exports 90% of its crude oil.
A US official told Reuters that strikes targeted Iranian air defence systems, coastal surveillance systems, surface-to-air missiles, anti-ship cruise missiles and drone launch sites.
No civilian deaths were reported in Iran.
