Tehran retaliates in Kuwait and Bahrain after second day of US strikes
The second wave of overnight strikes was launched after US President Donald Trump said an interim agreement to try to end the war was ‘over’
Trump said the strikes were “in retribution” for Tuesday’s assault by Iran on three cargo ships transiting the strait
Hours later, Iran said it had attacked US military sites in Bahrain and Kuwait in response to the new US strikes on infrastructure
Several explosions were heard in Iran’s Bushehr province on Thursday morning, semi official Mehr news reported.
Bushehr is where Iran’s nuclear power plant is located.
In response to the fresh U.S. strikes on Iran, Tehran attacked Kuwait and Bahrain, which are home to U.S. military bases.
The Kuwaiti army has now said material damages occurred and one person was injured, but is in stable condition, as a result of shrapnel falling from overnight Iranian attacks.
The army said it had engaged with one cruise missile, three ballistic missiles and 10 drones in its airspace.
Earlier, Iran’s state railway said overnight U.S. strikes hit a section of the railway line from Tehran to the northeastern city of Mashhad, where Iran’s week-long mass funeral ceremonies for slain leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei concludes on Thursday.
Iran’s foreign ministry has now issued a statement, condemning the U.S. attacks.
It said the strikes targeted several locations in southern coastal provinces and two railway bridges in eastern Iran, including on the route to Mashhad.
The ministry also said the attacks killed Iranian citizens, including members of the country’s naval forces, and vowed to defend Iran’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and hold those responsible accountable.
“The foreign ministry emphasizes the resolute determination of the brave Iranian nation to defend its territorial integrity, sovereignty, and national security,” the statement said.
The U.S. military has said its latest strikes on Iran are aimed at keeping the Strait of Hormuz open to shipping.
OPEC members Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait and Iraq, as well as former member the UAE, export most of their crude via the strait.
Qatar, among the world’s biggest LNG exporters, sends most of it through the waterway.
While traffic through the strait had picked up in the last week, it remains spotty, ranging between one-third and one-fifth of its pre-war levels of around 125 to 140 daily passages.
Iran’s parliamentary speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said in his social media post earlier that the Strait of Hormuz will “only open with ‘Iranian arrangements,’ not American bullying.”
The “arrangements” apparently referred to point five of the 14-point Memorandum of Understanding that Trump signed last month.
Point five says: “Upon the signing of this MoU, the Islamic Republic of Iran will make arrangements using its best efforts for the safe passage of commercial vessels with no charge for 60 days only, from the Persian Gulf to the Sea of Oman and vice versa.”
Iranian negotiators interpret that sentence as U.S. recognition of the Islamic Republic’s right to manage the waterway through which one-fifth of the world’s oil usually passes, albeit without charging fees or tolls for two months.
The United States – and Gulf states – reject that interpretation, regarding the language as meaning only that Iran should facilitate safe passage for vessels, and not impose restrictions backed up by force.
