Cairo — The Bahraini government said on Saturday that Iran had launched ballistic missiles and drones towards it and Kuwait. The Foreign Ministry said it had been intercepted and called on Iran to immediately stop its attacks on its neighbors in the Gulf.
The statement came hours after the US military announced that it had shot down Iranian ballistic missiles and drones launched at them Strait of Hormuz and its Gulf Arab allies on Friday, while striking some of the Islamic Republic’s coastal surveillance radar sites in retaliation, in an exchange of fire that further deteriorated the fragile ceasefire with Tehran.
The exchange of blows comes with the Trump administration Intensifying pressure on Iran To reach an agreement to end the conflict.
US Central Command said on social media on Friday night that Iran launched seven ballistic missiles towards Kuwait and Bahrain. US forces intercepted six of the missiles and the seventh missile failed to reach its target. The military said there were no reports of harm to American personnel.
The ballistic missiles were launched after the United States earlier in the day shot down four Iranian drones launched toward the Strait of Hormuz.
“The attack drones posed a direct threat to regional maritime traffic,” US Central Command said on social media.
The Kuwaiti army said that its forces intercepted missiles and drones attacking the country, while Bahrain activated air raid sirens and asked residents to move to the nearest safe place and follow official instructions.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard said it targeted Ali Al Salem Air Base, which hosts US forces in Kuwait, and the US Navy’s 5th Fleet on the small island of Bahrain, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.
The US military is imposing a blockade on Iranian ports in response to Tehran’s strangulation of the vital corridor for global oil and natural gas shipments, which has led to higher energy prices. Political problems were raised For the Republican Party, to which President Donald Trump belongs, before the midterm congressional elections.
US Central Command said it struck radar sites, including an island in the strait, “to defend against further attacks.”
This was the latest in a series of successive attacks that have strained the country’s fragile ceasefire War and Efforts to reach an agreement To extend that truce. Earlier this week, Iranian drones attacked heavily The passenger station was damaged At the main airport in Kuwait, killing one person, wounding dozens, and closing the airport for a short period.
Although the attacks raised new fears that the ceasefire could collapse, Trump told reporters on Friday that “the situation with Iran appears to be going well.”
“We’re going to get out of Iran very quickly and it’s going to be very forceful one way or another, whether it’s with a piece of paper or the very hard way,” Trump said at an event with farmers in Wisconsin. “The very hard way may be the easier way, but we will get out, and fertilizer prices will fall dramatically, just as they were four months ago.”
Trump increasingly He seems trapped in On the conflict that has settled into a waiting pattern. American and Iranian negotiators Reaching a preliminary agreement A week before extension cease-fire 60 days before a new round of talks begins Regarding the Iranian nuclear program. But Trump called for unspecified changes and Iranian officials have shown no public signs of signing the deal.
Asked on Friday why it was taking so long, Trump told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that it was because “it’s very difficult for them.”
“There are things they never thought they would do that they will have to do. They don’t have a choice, and it’s going to take some time,” he said in the interview.
Trump said the Iranians still have 21% to 22% of their missiles.
Its management may also be described The recent agreement on a ceasefire This week by the Lebanese government and Israel after US-brokered talks in Washington. However, the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group rejected the agreement, and the new attacks expose it to further risks.
Israeli army, Friday Hitting multiple areas in southern Lebanon It issued warnings to evacuate nine villages, including a village housing thousands of people displaced by the fighting. The official news agency reported that the strikes killed nine people in six locations in southern Lebanon.
The Israeli army announced that two soldiers were injured, one of them seriously, in a confrontation on Friday with gunmen in southern Lebanon.
The fighting in Lebanon, where Israeli forces control large swaths of the south, threatens efforts to end the war with Iran and reopen the Strait of Hormuz because Iran has demanded that any permanent truce extend to Lebanon.
Besides intercepting the drones in the Strait of Hormuz, the US military said earlier on Friday that its forces had boarded a sanctioned oil tanker linked to Iran in the Indian Ocean, as the US seeks to prevent Iran from profiting from its oil and other goods.
The United States also targeted Iran’s energy sector with new sanctions on a range of people, companies and tankers.
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Price reported from Bridgewater, NJ.