Iran and the United States launched fresh strikes on targets in the Persian Gulf region highlighting a precarious cease-fire amid a diplomatic push to reach a compromise deal to end their three-month old war.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it struck a US airbase in Kuwait early on May 28 after American forces hit a site near Bandar Abbas airport in southern Iran.
The IRGC said in a statement that its retaliatory strike came at 4:50 a.m. local time, targeting the base it identified as the origin of a US aerial assault on a point near Bandar Abbas airport using “aerial projectiles.” It described the operation as “a serious warning,” adding that if further attacks were carried out against Iran, “our response will be more decisive.”
Earlier in the evening, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said that American forces had shot down four Iranian drones that “posed a threat” near the Strait of Hormuz and struck a launch unit near Bandar Abbas in Hormozgan Province before it launched a fifth drone.
It said its actions were “measured, purely defensive, and intended to maintain the cease-fire.”
The IRGC-linked Tasnim news agency also reported that the IRGC Navy fired on a US tanker it said had attempted to pass through the Strait of Hormuz with its radar system switched off, and that Iranian naval forces confronted four vessels attempting to cross the waterway without coordinating with Iranian authorities.
The US strikes near Bandar Abbas were the second of their kind in three days. Kuwait acknowledged it was responding to missile and drone attacks without specifying their origin.
Earlier this week, the US said it had conducted what it described as “self-defense strikes” targeting vessels allegedly involved in laying naval mines.
Iran condemned those operations, calling them a violation of what it described as a fragile cease-fire arrangement.
The latest exchanges underscore continued volatility in the Gulf region in addition to remarks by US President Donald Trump where he rejected a report he was close to a compromise deal with Tehran.
During a cabinet meeting on May 27, Trump dismissed an Iranian state TV report that an unofficial draft of an agreement as a step toward a full peace plan includes restoring commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz that would be implemented by Tehran and the Gulf state of Oman.
Trump said no country could control the waterway, and appeared to threaten Oman, a country with which the US has decades-long military and economic ties.
“Nobody’s going to control (the strait),” Trump said. “It’s international waters and Oman will behave just like everybody else or we’ll have to blow them up. They understand that, they’ll be fine.”
The United States and Iran have been trading proposals via Pakistani mediators.
