Jaroslav LukivAnd
Toby Mann,BBC News
X / US Central Command
The US military said it launched “self-defense” strikes against Iran overnight and shot down ballistic missiles and drones fired at Gulf ships and countries.
The strikes on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz were “a response to Iran’s attempted attacks across the Middle East”, US Central Command (Centcom) said.
Iran said it attacked US bases and helicopters in a “regional country” using missiles and drones in retaliation. Centcom said Tehran fired two missiles at Kuwait and three at Bahrain, all of which broke up or were intercepted.
The Kuwaiti military later said Iranian drones had struck its international airport, causing “significant” damage to buildings and injuring a number of people.
Air traffic was suspended on Wednesday morning. Defense Ministry spokesman Brigadier General Saud Abdulaziz Al-Otaibi called the attack “an Iranian criminal aggression.” He said the injured had received medical treatment.
The latest attacks come as ceasefire negotiations between the United States and Iran have stalled, after negotiations on a deal to end the months-long war made no progress over the weekend.
Centcom said the strike on Qeshm Island targeted an Iranian military ground control station and that the U.S. military also shot down three attack drones launched by Iran toward “civilian marines legitimately transiting regional waters.”
The IRGC said that “disrupting the security of the Strait of Hormuz would result in a heavy price for the aggressive US military.”
Centcom also said Iran had launched “several” ballistic missiles at countries in the region. “Two Iranian missiles fired at Kuwait failed or broke up en route, and three missiles launched at Bahrain were immediately intercepted by U.S. and Bahraini air defense forces.”
Iran has repeatedly attacked targets in Bahrain and Kuwait, where U.S. military bases are located.
Earlier, Centcom said it had struck and disabled an empty tanker sailing to Iran, as part of Washington’s naval blockade on the Strait of Hormuz, which began on April 13.
A US plane fired a Hellfire missile at the engine room of the Botswana-flagged M/T ship after its crew “ignored repeated warnings”, it added.
Centcom also released footage purportedly showing the moment the tanker was hit on Tuesday.
The escalation comes after US President Donald Trump this week called on his critics to “sit back and relax”saying Iran “really wants to make a deal, and it will be a good deal for the United States.”
US media earlier reported that Trump had requested changes to the terms of a possible peace deal, after meeting with senior officials to discuss extending the framework of a ceasefire.
The changes concern the Strait of Hormuz and the withdrawal of highly enriched uranium from Iran, the BBC’s US partner CBS News reported, as well as a framework for reopening negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program.
On Monday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei denied the issue had been raised, adding that Washington was “constantly changing its mind and presenting new or contradictory demands.”
In its recent statement, Centcom said US forces “applied blockade measures against the Botswana-flagged M/T Lexie while it was transiting international waters en route to Kharg Island.”
It said the ship’s crew failed to “comply with the instructions of US forces on multiple occasions over a 24-hour period.”
A total of six commercial vessels have been neutralized and 122 others redirected since the blockade came into effect, Centcom said.
The BBC has contacted the Botswana government for comment.
The latest skirmish comes as U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio appears publicly before Congress for the first time since the war began.
The top diplomat said U.S. negotiators had not offered sanctions relief on Iran in exchange for reopening the strait.
“Right now, all that’s been discussed with them is that…any sanctions relief is conditional, meaning it has to be in exchange for why these sanctions were put in place in the first place, which is their nuclear program,” he said.
“The war is over,” he said in another tense exchange with a senator, as lawmakers on the committee questioned the U.S. strategy for ending the conflict.
