Iran targets Bahrain, Kuwait after US strikes

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they targeted US military sites in Bahrain and Kuwait on Wednesday after the US launched a wave of military strikes on Iran in response to attacks on tankers in the Strait of Hormuz.

In the latest blow to the fragile ceasefire agreement, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it carried out a joint missile and drone operation against key US military sites in Bandar Salman, Bahrain's Fifth Naval District and Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait, and shot down a U.S. MQ-9 drone attempting to interfere in the operation.

Air raid sirens sounded in Bahrain and Kuwait, and the Kuwaiti army said air defences were confronting "hostile" missile and drone attacks. There was no immediate comment on the strikes from the US military.

The US earlier unleashed fresh military strikes and revoked a licence allowing Iran to sell oil in response to attacks on three tankers in the strait.

The US Central Command said more than 60 small boats of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were among the targets hit during the operation, which was intended to impose a heavy cost on Iran for strikes on shipping in violation of the ceasefire.

"The unwarranted aggression by Iranian forces is a clear and dangerous violation of the ceasefire and undermines freedom of navigation," Centcom said in a statement.

Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte told reporters before a summit of Nato leaders in Ankara that the new attacks by the US on Iran were "absolutely necessary."

"When you have a ceasefire and Iran is basically violating the ceasefire, I think it is totally crucial that the US forcefully react," Rutte said.

Iran's top joint military command, Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, condemned the US strikes as a "blatant act of aggression," threatened a "crushing response," and warned that Tehran would not allow US interference in the management of the strait.

A top Iranian negotiator, parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf, accused the US of breaching the ceasefire agreement. He cited not only the latest US military strikes, but renewed oil sanctions, violations of Iranian "adjustments" in the Strait of Hormuz, and Israeli attacks against Lebanon.

"The era of bullying and extortion is over," Ghalibaf said in a post on X. "We don't fold."

Iranian media earlier reported explosions in Iran's main oil hub of Kharg Island, on Qeshm Island and in the southern port cities of Sirik and Bandar Abbas.

Iran's Press TV reported several blasts were heard in southern Kharg Island. Centcom made no mention of Kharg Island, from which Iran exports 90% of its crude oil.

A US official told Reuters that strikes targeted Iranian air defence systems, coastal surveillance systems, surface-to-air missiles, anti-ship cruise missiles and drone launch sites.

No civilian deaths were reported in Iran, but several people were injured by shrapnel from an "enemy projectile" that hit a commercial pier in Sirik, according to an Iranian state TV reporter. The reports said strikes also hit fishing piers in Sirik and in Bandar Abbas.

The incidents were the latest threat to the fragile ceasefire agreement the US and Iran struck last month, pausing the conflict that started with US and Israeli strikes across the Islamic Republic.

Any measure necessary

Iran's foreign ministry condemned the move as a breach of the framework agreement to end the war and said Washington would bear responsibility for the consequences.

The ministry said early on Wednesday that Iran would take any measure it deemed necessary to safeguard its interests and national security.

Qatar blamed Iran for attacking the vessels, including the huge Qatari liquefied natural gas tanker, the Al Rekayyat, which reported being struck overnight by a drone that caused a fire in its engine room. The crew were safe and being evacuated.

A Saudi-flagged crude oil tanker, believed to be the supertanker Wedyan, was also damaged off Oman, maritime security sources said. The cause was not immediately clear.

Qatar's foreign ministry said it had summoned Iran's deputy ambassador and handed him a protest note following the attack on the tanker.

Iran's foreign ministry said Qatar's accusations were perplexing and that Tehran was diligently fulfilling its commitments but asserted that commercial vessels faced risks for using routes not coordinated with Iran.

A second US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said initial indications were that Iran had fired at three commercial vessels.

Iran's rulers aim to install a permanent system to collect fees in what would amount to a huge shift of the balance of power in a region where Washington has long acted as guarantor of security.

At home, the leadership has used the mourning for Khamenei that began last week to show its control after Khamenei was martyred with his daughter, granddaughter, son-in-law and daughter-in-law on the war's first day.

The caskets of the martyred leader and family were driven through the streets of the seminary city of Qom on Tuesday. Iranian state media later showed what it said was footage of an aeroplane carrying Khamenei's coffin at the airport of the holy city of Najaf in neighbouring Iraq.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, who was in Iraq to participate in the funeral ceremonies, left for Iran after the US strikes on southern Iran, state television reported.

The ceasefire was intended to provide a 60-day window for negotiations on a permanent agreement, but indirect talks in Qatar ended last week with no sign of headway.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to resume bombing, most recently on Monday when he told reporters in the Oval Office: "We're either going to make a deal or we're going to finish the job...We can knock down their bridges in one hour, we can knock out their energy supply."

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that under the terms of the interim ceasefire memorandum, negotiations on the final deal would "not commence if threats continue".