Tehran:
The US military and Iranian forces exchanged fire in the Gulf region, escalating the standoff over the Strait of Hormuz. At least one person was killed, and four others were wounded in an American attack at an agricultural water pumping station in Iran’s Mahshahr, with Tehran saying the latest strikes had “rendered futile” all the diplomatic efforts of the past few months.
A US military spokesperson claimed the new strikes come after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targeted another commercial vessel trying to pass through the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, which once saw a fifth of all oil and natural gas pass through it. Both Washington and Tehran have been making contradictory claims about the status of marine traffic through the strait, which is key to Tehran’s leverage in negotiations under the deal signed by the two nations.
US military bases in the region also came under Iranian fire over the weekend, with Tehran acknowledging the latest attacks, marking another escalation in the diplomatic breakdown between the countries.
The US military began launching more strikes against Iran on Sunday, with US Central Command (Centcom) saying it hit “dozens of targets at multiple locations with precision munitions to degrade Iran’s ability to continue attacking international shipping flowing through the Strait of Hormuz.”
These targets include “Iranian military air defence systems, coastal radar sites, missile and drone capabilities, and small boats”.
CENTCOM said it deployed “US fighter aircraft, naval vessels, one-way attack aerial drones, and one-way attack sea drones for the first time”.
Iranian forces responded to US aggression by targeting American military bases in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan, and even Oman — whose territorial waters with Iran make up the strait. According to Iran’s IRNA news agency, drone attacks were continuing on US bases in the region, with Tehran claiming it destroyed an American drone fleet in Bahrain.
Iranian media claimed that Tehran also launched “destructive drone” assaults on US forces in Kuwait, including defense and missile systems, bunkers, and support shelters.
Iran’s IRGC earlier claimed attacks on Kuwait’s Ali Salem and Ahmad Al-Jaber bases.
