Iran Attacks US Military Sites in Bahrain and Kuwait After New American Strikes Over Ship Attacks This Week

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran launched missile and drone attacks against U.S. military sites in Bahrain and Kuwait early Wednesday, hours after the United States carried out fresh airstrikes inside Iran and revoked a waiver that had allowed Tehran to sell oil on the open market, escalating tensions that threaten to unravel an already fragile interim agreement between the two countries.

The U.S. military's Central Command said it struck more than 80 targets inside Iran, including air defense systems, command and control networks, and anti-ship missile capabilities. The Pentagon said the strikes were carried out in response to Iranian attacks on three commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, including a Saudi oil tanker and a Qatari liquefied natural gas carrier struck in waters off the coast of Oman. According to the U.K. Maritime Trade Operations center, one tanker caught fire after being hit while traveling off Oman's coast, while the other two vessels sustained damage but continued on their way, with no injuries reported. Iranian state television said the liquefied natural gas tanker came under attack after ignoring warnings, though Tehran did not directly claim responsibility for the assault.

U.S. Central Command said it had also targeted more than 60 small boats operated by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in and near the strait, describing the vessels as central to Iran's efforts to harass commercial shipping. The command said the strikes were carried out "to impose heavy costs for targeting and attacking commercial shipping crewed by innocent civilians in an international waterway," adding that U.S. forces remained "postured and prepared to hold Iran accountable when the agreement is not adhered to or obeyed."

Iran's response came within hours. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had targeted 85 U.S. military installations across Bahrain and Kuwait, and separately said it had shot down an American MQ-9 drone during the operation. Air raid sirens sounded across both countries, with Kuwait's army saying its air defenses were actively intercepting hostile missiles and drones without specifying their point of origin. Iranian state media reported that most of the sites struck were civilian in nature, including fishing piers and a telecommunications tower, and that several people were taken to the hospital following a strike on the town of Sirik in southern Iran.

The Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, part of Iran's military command structure, described the U.S. strikes on southern Iran as an "overt act of aggression" and warned that Tehran would "deliver a crushing response," according to remarks carried on Iranian state media. The command also warned the United States against interfering in Iran's management of the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway through which roughly a fifth of the world's traded oil and natural gas passes during peacetime.

Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran's Parliament and the country's top negotiator in talks with Washington, accused the United States of committing major violations of the preliminary accord that had reopened the Strait of Hormuz. "The era of bullying and extortion is over. It leads nowhere. We don't fold," Ghalibaf wrote on social media.

The renewed exchange of strikes has cast fresh doubt over the prospects for a broader, lasting end to the fighting between the two countries. Negotiations between Iran and the United States have been paused pending the conclusion of dayslong funeral ceremonies for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, who was killed on the first day of the joint U.S.-Israeli operation against Iran earlier this year. Khamenei's body was transported to Qom, the center of Shiite religious education in Iran, for official prayers and a street procession, following three days of public mourning in Tehran, before later continuing on to Najaf, Iraq, for further funeral rites attended by crowds of mourners.

President Trump, attending a NATO summit in Turkey alongside more than 30 other world leaders, again accused European allies of the United States of not doing enough to support Washington's confrontation with Iran, according to remarks made Tuesday.

The renewed fighting has had an immediate effect on global energy markets. The price of oil rose nearly 5 percent following the latest exchange of strikes, climbing above $76 a barrel, its highest level in roughly two weeks. That figure remains significantly below the peak reached during the most intense phase of the broader conflict earlier this year, but it sits above the prewar price of around $72 a barrel, reflecting continued market anxiety over the security of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

Separately, the Trump administration on Tuesday revoked a waiver that had permitted the sale of Iranian oil, a concession that had been part of the temporary ceasefire agreement reached last month. The decision followed the attacks on commercial shipping and adds further economic pressure on Iran at a moment when talks over a more comprehensive resolution to the conflict remain paused.

The current round of hostilities builds on a broader pattern of escalation that has persisted for months. Bahrain, which hosts the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet, and Kuwait, home to the Ali Al Salem Air Base used by American forces, have both been targeted repeatedly by Iranian strikes since the conflict began earlier this year, alongside Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, which also host U.S. military assets in the region. Neighboring governments across the Gulf, along with Jordan, have previously condemned Iranian strikes on Bahrain and Kuwait as violations of sovereignty and international law, while Iran has maintained that the Strait of Hormuz should be governed under its own oversight rather than through arrangements involving the United States and its regional partners.

Shipping through the strait has continued despite the ongoing hostilities, though at reduced levels compared with prewar norms. A multinational maritime body overseen by the U.S. Navy reported that 89 commercial transits had been completed in recent days, below the historical average of roughly 138 vessels per day, even as the body noted that U.S.-assisted commercial transits had continued uninterrupted despite what it described as an elevated threat environment in the region.

With negotiations between Washington and Tehran still on hold and both sides trading accusations over responsibility for the latest escalation, the prospects for a durable resolution to the broader conflict remain uncertain, as regional governments and international observers continue to monitor developments across the Gulf for signs of further escalation or a potential return to substantive talks once Khamenei's funeral proceedings conclude.