The U.S. military launched a fresh round of airstrikes against targets in Iran on Saturday, hours after officials there said they were targeting U.S. interests in the Middle East. Soon after, the governments of Bahrain and Kuwait both said they were targeted, as Iran said it launched a retaliatory attack.
The clashes marked the latest threat to a ceasefire and talks toward a broader peace.
U.S. Central Command said its forces targeted Iranian military infrastructure, including communication systems, air defense sites and drone storage facilities, along with its capabilities to lay mines, in response to what it called “continued Iranian aggression against commercial shipping.”
Hours later, Bahrain decried Sunday attacks from Iran that it said endanger civilians. The Kuwaiti army said that it intercepted two ballistic missiles in its airspace and that there was “no material damage or human injuries.”
Since the ceasefire, tensions have erupted over the Strait of Hormuz, the vital waterway for global commerce. A memorandum of understanding that solidified the ceasefire calls for ensuring safe passage through the strait, but Washington and Tehran differ over whether Iran can control which vessels cross and when.
President Donald Trump accused Iran of violating the ceasefire agreement and threatened further action if Tehran didn’t comply. “There may come a point when we are no longer able to be reasonable, and will be forced to militarily complete the job that we very successfully started,” he wrote on Truth Social after the U.S. strikes.
Earlier Saturday, Iran said it launched strikes on U.S. interests in the Middle East. A U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said two one-way attack drones were detected approaching the U.S. Navy base in Bahrain. One was shot down by a ground-based defense system, while another landed harmlessly in a remote airfield area, the official said.
In another incident, U.K. Maritime Trade Operations — a monitoring agency run by the British Navy — reported that a tanker in the Strait of Hormuz was damaged after it was hit by an “unidentified projectile.” All crew members were reported safe, it said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. The agency’s Joint Maritime Information Center raised the security threat level to “substantial,” citing the strikes on merchant ships and mines in the strait.
The U.S. military cited an incident in the strait when announcing the latest attacks, which came a day after it separately struck Iranian missile and drone storage locations in retaliation for an earlier Iranian attack on a commercial ship exiting the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday.
“After yesterday’s U.S. strikes in response to the Iranian attack on M/V Ever Lovely, Iran was given a chance to honor the ceasefire agreement but elected not to when its forces launched a one-way attack drone that hit M/T Kiku this morning at 4:30 a.m. ET,” military officials from U.S. Central Command, which oversees operations in the region, said in a statement Saturday. “The Panama-flagged tanker was transiting near the Strait of Hormuz with more than two-million barrels of crude oil.”
Traffic through the strait slowed sharply during the four-month U.S.-Iran war, causing oil prices to surge. Energy costs have eased since the ceasefire was reached earlier this month, but the dispute over control of the strait has led to rising tensions.
Each side has accused the other of violating the memorandum of understanding signed by the two countries. The 14-point deal to end the war paved the way for a further 60-day period of technical negotiations to work out some of the thorniest details.
U.S. Central Command did not immediately confirm whether American assets were hit. Bahrain’s Foreign Ministry said its territory was under drone attack early Saturday but did not share details on targets or damage.
It condemned “continued attacks, at a time when regional and international efforts are moving toward de-escalation,” without elaborating on whether the drones were intercepted or any damage occurred. The ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the attacks, which were also condemned by the United Arab Emirates.
Bahrain is home to the headquarters of the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, and has been repeatedly subject to Iranian attacks over the course of the war. This week it hosted U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who met with Gulf allies to reassure them that the U.S. was committed to regional stability.
On Saturday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps threatened further clashes in a statement claiming strikes on U.S. military targets, without specifying details.
“In the event of a repeat of aggression, our response will be more extensive,” it said in comments reported by Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim News Agency.
Vice President JD Vance said in a post on X on Friday that if Iran had “disagreements about how the MOU is being applied, they can pick up the phone.”
“But violence will be met with violence,” he added.
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