Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said early Thursday that it targeted a US airbase in Kuwait in response to an American aerial strike near Bandar Abbas Airport in southern Iran, Anadolu reports.
According to Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency, the IRGC said the retaliatory strike came at 4.50 am (0120GMT), hours after what it described as a US assault on a point near the port city’s airport using aerial projectiles.
“This response is a serious warning so that the enemy knows that aggression will not go unanswered, and if repeated, our response will be more decisive,” it said.
Later, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said Thursday through US social media company X that Iran launched “a ballistic missile toward Kuwait” at 10.17 pm ET (0217GMT) on Wednesday, and that the missile was “successfully intercepted by Kuwaiti forces.”
CENTCOM described the launch as an “egregious ceasefire violation by the Iranian regime.”
It also said Iranian forces earlier launched “five one-way attack drones that posed a clear threat in and near the Strait of Hormuz,” adding that all were intercepted by US forces.
The command further said US forces “prevented a sixth drone launch from an Iranian ground control site in Bandar Abbas.”
Earlier in the day, a US official told Anadolu that US forces shot down four Iranian drones that posed a threat near the Strait of Hormuz and struck an Iranian ground control station in Bandar Abbas that was preparing to launch a fifth drone.
“These actions were measured, purely defensive, and intended to maintain the ceasefire,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
CENTCOM said US forces and regional partners “remain vigilant and measured” as they continue defending “forces and interests from unjustified Iranian aggression.”
The latest strikes came after CENTCOM earlier this week confirmed a previous round of strikes on southern Iran targeting missile launch sites and Iranian boats allegedly attempting to lay mines. Iran condemned those strikes as a “grave violation of the ceasefire.”
Earlier, commenting on the state of the negotiations to end the war on Iran, US President Donald Trump said he is “not satisfied with it, but we will be. Either that, or we’ll have to just finish the job.”
Regional tensions escalated on Feb. 28, when the US and Israel launched attacks on Iran, prompting Tehran to retaliate with barrages of drones and missiles that hit targets across the region and to close the Strait of Hormuz.
A ceasefire took effect on April 8 through Pakistani mediation, but talks in Islamabad failed to produce a lasting agreement.
Trump later extended the truce indefinitely while maintaining a blockade on vessels traveling to or from Iranian ports through the strategic waterway and periodically saying a peace deal was close.
