Iran fires missiles at Gulf after US targets Iranian radar sites
The United States says it downed multiple Iranian ballistic missiles and drones that were launched towards the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf, further testing a fragile truce between the US and Iran as negotiations drag out.
According to the US Central Command (CENTCOM), seven ballistic missiles were fired towards Kuwait and Bahrain late on Friday night, hours after CENTCOM shot down four Iranian attack drones that were launched towards the Strait of Hormuz.
It added that six of the missiles were intercepted, and the seventh did not reach its target.
Kuwait and Bahrain condemned the Iranian missile and drone strikes, calling them a violation of their sovereignty and a threat to regional security. Egypt, Jordan and Qatar also issued condemnations on Saturday.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it carried out attacks targeting US bases in the region in retaliation for earlier US strikes. The US military claimed it hit Iranian coastal surveillance radar sites in Goruk and on Qeshm Island.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry denounced US attacks as a “flagrant” violation of the ceasefire that has been in place since April, saying it showed the US “not only lacks the will to reduce tensions”, but “seriously endangers the security of the region”.
Tehran also said the US bears responsibility for “all the effects and consequences of these illegal actions, as well as any possible escalation of tension”.
The US military, for its part, said it attacked Iranian radar sites to “defend against further attacks” after the Iranian drones fired towards the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s IRGC claimed the clash started when the US military attempted to “illegally” escort oil tankers through the waterway, which Iran has largely closed off during the war.
The US and Iran have been participating in indirect talks to reach an interim deal to end the war; however, the two sides remain at odds. As part of the agreement, Iran wants sanctions waivers, access to frozen assets, and the lifting of a US blockade on its ports.
At the same time, the US has called for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and concessions on Tehran’s nuclear programme. Reporting from Tehran, Al Jazeera’s Almigdad Alruhaid said the IRGC’s latest attacks were a “warning” to the US.
“The IRGC stated clearly that this latest incident began when several oil tankers backed by the United States attempted to transit the state of Hormuz without coordinating with the IRGC,” he said, adding that what followed was a series of back-and-forth attacks.
“They are explicitly warning that this kind of aggression from the United States in the region will not go unanswered, and that it will retaliate forcefully and immediately,” Alruhaid said. Reporting from Doha, Qatar, Al Jazeera’s Zein Basravi explained that the tit-for-tat attacks have become a “mainstay” for the Iran war.
“The longer it goes on, the harder it is for negotiating sides, for mediators, for the GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] not just to recover economically, but to get to a place where the fighting stops.
Every time one of these attacks happens, it hardens political and military positions, and that makes the idea of a negotiated solution that much more fragile,” he said.
“We have seen the international economy suffer greatly as a result of the blockades with Iran’s actions in the Strait of Hormuz and the US blockading Iran, and the worry is that this will carry on.”
