DUBAI/WASHINGTON: Hostilities between Iran and the United States escalated sharply on Wednesday as Iran claimed responsibility for attacks on US military assets in Kuwait and Bahrain, including the headquarters of the US Fifth Fleet, while Washington reported intercepting missiles launched toward regional allies and carrying out retaliatory strikes.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said it had launched missiles and drones against the US Fifth Fleet headquarters, an airbase and helicopters in a Gulf country in response to what it described as a US attack on a communications tower south of Qeshm Island.
The Kuwaiti Army headquarters said the passenger building of Kuwait International Airport suffered ‘significant material damage’ because of the ‘criminal Iranian aggression’, which also resulted into injuries to some individuals. Kuwait’s civil aviation authority said air traffic have been suspended and flights were diverted to alternative airports until further notice.
Iranian media also reported that the IRGC Navy targeted a vessel identified as Panaya with missiles after accusing US forces of striking an Iranian tanker near the Strait of Hormuz, damaging its engine room.
In this US Army handout photo released on June 1, 2026, a US Army air defense artilleryman conducts maintenance on an MIM-104 Patriot missile system, the army's primary terminal-phase anti-ballistic missile system, at an undisclosed location in the Middle East. (AFP)
“Disrupting the security of the Strait of Hormuz will carry a heavy price for the US military,” Iranian media quoted the IRGC as saying.
The latest claims came hours after Kuwait’s military said its air defenses intercepted hostile missile and drone attacks, while neighboring Bahrain activated warning sirens and urged residents to seek shelter.
The US military disputed the Iranian version, saying it conducted strikes on Iran’s Qeshm Island after defeating multiple Iranian missiles and drones launched toward Kuwait and Bahrain.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) said Iran had launched ballistic missiles toward regional neighbors but failed to hit any targets.
Iranian media reported explosions near Qeshm Island, which lies close to the strategic Strait of Hormuz, while the United States separately said it had engaged a tanker heading toward Iran.
The activity happened after Iran stopped communicating with mediators about extending a ceasefire in the war with the US and Israel, according to reports Tuesday from two semiofficial Iranian news agencies.
The reports by the Fars and Tasnim news agencies, both believed to be close to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, came as tensions flared in Israel’s separate-but-related fight against the Iranian-backed militia Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Last week, Washington and Tehran said they had reached a tentative framework aimed at ending the conflict, but neither side has formally endorsed a final agreement.
Iranian media reported that communications between Tehran and Washington had lapsed for several days.
Map showing the location of Qeshm along Iran's Strait of Hormuz, which US forces bombed late on Tuesday. (AFP)
Trump called reports of a cessation in talks “false and erroneous”
US President Donald Trump disputed those claims by Iran, insisting negotiations remained active.
“The conversations between us have been going on continuously, including four days ago, three days ago, two days ago, one day ago, and today,” Trump said in a social media post.
“Where they lead, one never knows, but as I told Iran, ‘It’s time, one way or another, for you to make a Deal.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio did not address the reported cutoff in communications as he testified at a congressional hearing in Washington. Instead, he sounded an optimistic note about the nuclear dimension of the negotiations, while cautioning that there’s no guarantee of reaching “a deal that’s acceptable.”
Iran has been trying to increase pressure on Trump over negotiations on the Iran war ceasefire and loosening the Islamic Republic’s chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz and the oil, gas and other commodities that normally pass through it. Trump then could potentially push Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to halt or slow the advance of his forces, which have moved deeper into Lebanon than at any time in over a quarter of a century.
The conflicts have increasingly become conjoined, as Iran insists that any potential truce in the war there must also quell the fighting in Lebanon.
Israel and the US maintain the fighting in Lebanon is separate from the Iran war talks.
The renewed exchange underscored the fragility of a conflict now entering its fourth month after US and Israeli strikes on Iran in late February killed senior Iranian leaders and triggered a wider regional confrontation.
Although a shaky ceasefire remains in place, fighting continues sporadically and the Strait of Hormuz — one of the world’s most important energy chokepoints — remains largely closed to commercial shipping.
Nuclear talks remain deadlocked
Since mid-March, Trump has repeatedly said a negotiated settlement is within reach and that discussions could eventually address Iran’s nuclear program.
Washington maintains that preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons remains its primary objective. Tehran insists its nuclear activities are entirely peaceful.
Iran is seeking access to billions of dollars in frozen oil revenues, relief from sanctions on crude exports, an end to restrictions affecting its ports, and continued leverage over the Strait of Hormuz.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers on Tuesday that sanctions relief would only be considered if Iran agreed to abandon its nuclear activities.
“The war is over,” Rubio said during a contentious Senate exchange, although fresh military exchanges across the Gulf highlighted the continuing volatility of the conflict.
Regional impact widens
The war, which began on Feb. 28, has killed thousands of people, primarily in Iran and Lebanon, and disrupted global energy markets by sharply reducing traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, which previously carried roughly one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas supplies.
The conflict has also intensified fighting between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement.
Israeli forces continued strikes across southern Lebanon on Tuesday despite a US-mediated partial ceasefire announced a day earlier, according to Lebanese security sources.
The renewed violence has done little to reassure civilians. More than 1.2 million people have been displaced in Lebanon since the conflict escalated.
“Every time we return to our homes, there is a warning for us to be displaced again,” said Faten Al Chehime, who recently fled Beirut’s southern suburbs for a displacement camp.
The conflict’s impact has also spread to maritime trade.
Shipping giant MSC said one of its vessels was struck by two projectiles while docked at Iraq’s Umm Qasr port on Monday.
The IRGC said the attack was retaliation for a US strike on an Iranian vessel in the Gulf of Oman.
The growing disruption to global trade and logistics is hampering humanitarian operations worldwide, the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF said, warning that rising transport costs and supply-chain disruptions are affecting aid deliveries to Gaza, Lebanon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, Somalia, South Sudan, Nigeria and other crisis-hit regions.
– with Reuters, AP and AFP
