US-Iran war: Tehran attacks Bahrain, Kuwait following US strikes; threatens to end talks to end the war

DUBAI: Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard launched drone and missile attacks Sunday targeting Bahrain and Kuwait in response to U.S. airstrikes that hit the Islamic Republic, and threatened a “complete halt” could come to negotiations to end the war if Washington continues its attacks.

The attacks on Bahrain and Kuwait came as a multinational maritime body overseen by the U.S. Navy said Saturday that it would expand a route near Oman in the Strait of Hormuz to allow for both inbound and outbound traffic — setting up a new flashpoint with Tehran.

Also read: Iran war latest ground report: Interim deal imperilled further as both sides go ballistic again


An interim deal between U.S. and Iran to end the war called for the strait, which once saw a fifth of the world's oil and natural gas pass through it, to see transits resume. However, Iran has twice attacked vessels going through the Oman route, backed by a United Nations agency, as Tehran insists that it must control passage through the crucial waterway despite American and Gulf Arab opposition.

Early Sunday, the U.S. military’s Central Command said it struck Iranian military “surveillance infrastructure, communication systems, air defense sites, drone storage facilities and minelayer capabilities” following an attack on a ship at sea early Saturday morning. That ship, the Panamanian-flagged tanker Kiku, carried crude oil for the state-run energy company of Qatar, a key negotiator between Iran and the U.S.

In a social media post, Trump said the U.S. had “struck Iranian missile and drone storage locations, and coastal radar sites, for violating the Cease Fire Agreement, AGAIN!” He warned of a point where the U.S. may no longer be able to be reasonable “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.

The incident follows a similar back and forth that occurred just days prior when an Iranian drone struck a merchant vessel off the coast of Oman on Thursday and the U.S. military retaliated with strikes.

Also read: UKMTO says ship hit by projectile within Strait of Hormuz

US says strikes were a response to Iranian attack on oil tanker

According to ship tracking websites, the Kiku left a Qatari oil field in the middle of the Persian Gulf earlier in the week and was bound for a port in the United Arab Emirates that sits on the Gulf of Oman, just on the other side of the Strait of Hormuz.

It appeared to be attempting to use a route that was established near the coast of Oman that is serving as an alternative to the route sanctioned by Iran that runs through its own waters.

The U.S. military said that “Iran had a chance to honor the ceasefire agreement” but “elected not to” when its forces attacked the Kiku.

After the U.S. strikes early Sunday, Kuwait’s military said air defenses intercepted incoming Iranian drones and missiles. It offered no immediate information on any damage. Kuwait is home to a major U.S. Army base.

Bahrain's Foreign Ministry issued a statement denouncing what it called “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.”

Bahrain is home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, whose base there came under repeated attack during the war.

The Guard claimed responsibility for both attacks, saying it targeted Al Asad Air Base in Kuwait.

“Let the enemy know that violating the ceasefire ... will lead to a complete halt of ongoing processes,” the Guard added.

The Guard, which controls Iran's ballistic missile arsenal, answers only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei and is thought to be wielding even greater influence now in the Islamic Republic.