Bahrain’s government said Saturday that Iran fired ballistic missiles and drones towards it and Kuwait.
The foreign ministry said they had been intercepted and called on Iran to immediately cease attacks on its Gulf neighbors.
The statement came hours after the US military said it shot down Iranian ballistic missiles and drones launched toward the Strait of Hormuz and Gulf Arab allies on Friday, while striking some of the Islamic Republic’s coastal surveillance radar sites in response, an exchange of fire that further frayed a shaky ceasefire with Tehran.
The exchange of strikes comes as the Trump administration ramps up pressure on Iran to make a deal to end the conflict.
US Central Command said on social media Friday night that Iran fired seven ballistic missiles toward Kuwait and Bahrain, with US forces intercepting six of the missiles and a seventh failing to reach its target. The military said there were no reports of harm to US personnel.
The ballistic missiles were fired after the US earlier in the day shot down four Iranian drones that were launched toward the Strait of Hormuz.
“The attack drones posed an immediate threat to regional maritime traffic,” US Central Command said on social media.
Kuwait’s military said forces were intercepting missiles and drones attacking the country, while Bahrain activated air raid sirens and told residents to move to the nearest safe location and follow official instructions.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said it targeted the Ali Al Salem airbase, which hosts US forces in Kuwait, and the US Navy’s 5th Fleet in the tiny Gulf island nation of Bahrain, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.
The US military is enforcing a blockade on Iranian ports in response to Tehran’s chokehold on the crucial corridor for global oil and natural gas shipments, which has sent energy prices spiking and posed political problems for President Donald Trump’s Republican Party ahead of the midterm congressional elections.
US Central Command said it hit the radar sites, including an island in the strait, “to defend against further attacks.”
It was the latest in back-and-forth attacks that have strained the tenuous ceasefire in the war and efforts to reach a deal to extend that truce. Earlier this week, Iranian drones heavily damaged a passenger terminal at Kuwait’s main airport, killing one person, wounding dozens and briefly closing the airfield.
Despite the attacks raising new concerns that the ceasefire could collapse, Trump told reporters Friday that “the situation with Iran seems to be going quite well.”
“We’re going to come out of Iran very quickly and it’s going to be very strong one way or the other, whether it’s a piece of paper or the very tough way,” Trump said at an event with farmers in Wisconsin. “The very tough way is maybe the easier way, but we’re going to come out, and your fertilizer prices are going to go way down, just like they were four months ago.”
Trump increasingly appears to be boxed in on a conflict that has settled into a holding pattern. US and Iranian negotiators reached a tentative agreement a week ago to extend the ceasefire by 60 days and start a new round of talks on Iran’s nuclear programme. But Trump has called for unspecified changes and Iranian officials have shown no public signs of signing off on the deal.
