Nicosia, Cyprus. Iran targeted a US air base in Kuwait on Thursday after the United States struck what Washington described as an Iranian drone operation near the Strait of Hormuz and President Donald Trump rejected a reported compromise deal with Tehran.
The attacks, while limited, highlighted the fragility of negotiations aimed at turning the tenuous ceasefire that took effect in early April into an agreement to end the three-month-old war that has killed thousands and reopen the vital shipping route.
US says it intercepted drones and missile
US Central Command said US forces shot down five Iranian attack drones and struck a ground control station in the port city of Bandar Abbas that was about to launch a sixth drone. Kuwaiti forces then intercepted a ballistic missile fired toward the country, which hosts a large US base.
“These actions were measured, purely defensive and intended to maintain the ceasefire,” a US official, who requested anonymity to speak candidly about military operations, told Reuters earlier.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had targeted the US base responsible for an early-morning attack near Bandar Abbas airport and that any repeat would lead to a “more decisive response,” Tasnim news agency reported.
Kuwait condemned the attack and demanded that Iran immediately halt what it called a serious escalation.
Regional tensions continue
The violence, the second flare-up this week, coincided with the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha celebrated across the region, where multiple countries have been caught up in the conflict triggered by US and Israeli attacks on Iran on February 28.
In Lebanon, which Iran says must be part of any overall agreement to end hostilities, Israel said it had begun striking infrastructure of Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in Tyre and had carried out a strike in the capital Beirut.
The Lebanese army said a strike had killed one of its soldiers, while Israel, which has displaced hundreds of thousands of people with a push deep into Lebanon in pursuit of Hezbollah, said air raid sirens had gone off in its north.
Oil prices rebounded, with US crude futures CLc1 up around 3 per cent after falling 5 per cent on Wednesday, while stocks fell and the dollar rose on fading investor confidence in a peace deal that many see as key to easing global inflation risks.
