Iran launched retaliatory strikes, targeting multiple US military bases in Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan after the Central Command forces carried out strikes across multiple Iranian cities. It was the third time this week that back-and-forth strikes have tested a two-month shaky ceasefire.
Iran closed the strategically critical Strait of Hormuz for all vessels and claimed its forces hit US military sites in Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan in retaliation. The IRGC’s Aerospace Force chief, Majid Mousavi, said, “Are you making the sacred Strait of Hormuz unsafe? We will make the region hell for you from all over Iran,” as quoted by the Tasnim news agency.
“This is the response to the audacity of the Americans in the region, God willing,” he added.
The Central Command (CENTCOM) on Thursday announced that its forces had carried out “additional self-defence strikes” against “multiple targets in Iran”. The CENTCOM said that the strikes were carried out in “response to Iran’s unwarranted and continued aggression.” Explosions were reportedly heard in Sirik, Qeshm Island, Minab, Isfahan and Bandar Abbas.
The US did not elaborate on the damage done by the strikes, which it said were carried out by the country’s Air Force, Marines and Navy.
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As Iran responded with strikes, Kuwait closed its airspace and its air defences fought off the attack. Kuwait’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation said flights were being diverted to other airports, without elaborating.
Air raid sirens also sounded in Bahrain, with the country’s Interior Ministry has told people to “remain calm and head to the nearest safe place.”
“In response to the missile attacks by the child-killing American army on a recreational site, a production complex, and the area of a barracks near Karaj and Nazarabad, as well as a local IRGC base in Pishva county, to punish the aggressor, this morning 12 ballistic missiles targeted the locations of American F35, F15, F16 fighter jets and also important facilities of the American terrorist army located at the Al-Azraq airbase and control center. Those facilities and a large number of fighter jets were destroyed,” the IRGC said.
Earlier, Trump had told reporters at the Oval Office that the US would be striking Iran again on Wednesday. “We’re going to hit them again hard today,” Trump said. Alongside, he also urged Iran to sign a deal with the United States, saying, “we were really close to a deal but they keep tapping us along.”