Washington, United States. The U.S. said it struck Iranian military sites over the weekend, and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Monday it targeted a U.S. base in response. The exchanges came as negotiations to end the three-month-old war continued.
U.S. response
The U.S. Central Command said in a post on X that the strikes on Iran’s Gulf coast were in response to what it described as “aggressive Iranian actions that included the shootdown of a U.S. MQ-1 drone that was operating over international waters.”
“U.S. fighter aircraft swiftly responded by eliminating Iranian air defences, a ground control station, and two one-way attack drones that posed clear threats to ships transiting regional waters,” CENTCOM said. It added that it would continue to protect U.S. assets and interests during the ongoing ceasefire.
Iranian retaliation
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Monday that it had targeted an air base used by the U.S. in response to an attack on southern Iran, without identifying the base.
Air defences in Kuwait, where a major U.S. base is located, were intercepting missile and drone attacks on Monday as sirens sounded across the country, the state news agency KUNA reported. It did not provide further details.
Ongoing exchanges
The U.S. and Iran have sporadically exchanged strikes since their ceasefire took effect in early April as negotiations for a more durable agreement have continued. A similar exchange occurred last Thursday and was described in similar terms by both sides.
The war launched by the U.S. and Israel on February 28 has killed thousands of people, mainly in Iran and Lebanon, and caused global economic pain by pushing up energy prices after Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz.
Negotiation issues
U.S. President Donald Trump has said his key aim in the war is to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon with its highly enriched uranium. Tehran has denied it has plans to do so.
Trump is also under pressure to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and bring down U.S. gasoline prices ahead of the November congressional elections, while facing possible backlash from Iran hawks in his own party over any concessions to Tehran.
The two sides remain at odds on several other issues, including Tehran’s demand for sanctions relief and the release of tens of billions of dollars of Iranian oil revenues frozen in foreign banks.
