DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard fired drones and missiles at Bahrain and Kuwait on Sunday, striking back after U.S. airstrikes hit Iranian targets, while also warning that peace negotiations could be brought to a “complete halt” if Washington presses forward with its military campaign.
The escalating conflict has been further inflamed by a dispute over control of the Strait of Hormuz. A multinational maritime organization operating under U.S. Navy oversight announced Saturday that it would widen a shipping lane near Oman to accommodate both arriving and departing vessels — a move that put it on a direct collision course with Tehran.
Iran has insisted that once the war is over, it must have sole authority over the strait — the narrow waterway at the mouth of the Persian Gulf that once carried roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas supply. While the international community has long viewed the strait as an open international passage, it runs through the territorial waters of both Iran and Oman. In recent days, Iran has attacked ships twice that were using a route along the Omani side of the strait, a route backed by a United Nations agency.
Kuwait’s military reported that its air defense systems successfully intercepted Iranian drones and missiles Sunday morning, shortly after the U.S. conducted its strikes. Kuwait, which is home to a major U.S. Army installation, confirmed it detected and shot down two ballistic missiles, with no reported casualties or damage on the ground.
In Bahrain, the Interior Ministry confirmed that Iranian strikes damaged a residential building located near the country’s international airport, though no fatalities were reported. The ministry shared photographs showing an eight-story structure with its top floor completely obliterated — reduced to rubble with windows blown out throughout the building.
Bahrain serves as the home port for the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, whose base there had come under repeated fire during the ongoing war. Sunday’s damaged building was not located near the fleet’s headquarters in downtown Manama.
Bahrain’s Foreign Ministry released a sharp condemnation, calling the attacks “a dangerous escalation that reveals that what Tehran is doing is not a passing act, nor an isolated incident, but rather a deliberate approach and a systematic pattern of repeated aggression against the sovereignty of the kingdom, and the security of its citizens and residents.”
The strikes unfolded after a weekend of back-and-forth military action between the U.S. and Iran. The U.S. military’s Central Command stated it had hit Iranian “surveillance infrastructure, communication systems, air defense sites, drone storage facilities and minelayer capabilities” on Sunday, following an attack on a vessel at sea early Saturday morning. That ship — the Panamanian-flagged tanker Kiku — was carrying crude oil for the state-run energy company of Qatar, which has been serving as a key mediator between Iran and the United States.
Trump posted on social media that the U.S. had “struck Iranian missile and drone storage locations, and coastal radar sites, for violating the Cease Fire Agreement, AGAIN!” He cautioned that there may come a point where the U.S. can no longer exercise restraint “and will be forced to militarily complete the job.”
“If that happens, the Islamic Republic of Iran will no longer exist!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
This latest exchange mirrors a similar cycle of attacks that played out just days earlier, when an Iranian drone struck a merchant ship off the Omani coast on Thursday, prompting U.S. military retaliation.
The Revolutionary Guard claimed responsibility for both Sunday’s attacks, saying it targeted Al Asad Air Base in Kuwait. The Guard also issued a stark warning: “Let the enemy know that violating the ceasefire … will lead to a complete halt of ongoing processes.”
The Guard, which maintains control over Iran’s ballistic missile stockpile and reports solely to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, is believed to hold growing sway within the Islamic Republic.
The U.S. military stated that “Iran had a chance to honor the ceasefire agreement” but “elected not to” when its forces attacked the Kiku.
Ship-tracking data shows the Kiku had departed a Qatari oil field in the middle of the Persian Gulf earlier in the week and was headed toward a port in the United Arab Emirates situated on the Gulf of Oman, just beyond the Strait of Hormuz. The vessel appeared to be navigating an alternate route along the Omani coastline — an option that bypasses the Iran-sanctioned corridor running through Iranian waters.
