Iran Fires Missiles at Kuwait and Bahrain in Retaliation for U.S. Strikes, in a Direct Military Exchange That Imperils the Hormuz Truce

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced on state television that it had attacked United States military sites in the Gulf, retaliating for Friday's U.S. air strikes and warning that any repeat would draw what it called a "broader" response. U.S. Central Command said Iran fired seven ballistic missiles toward Kuwait and Bahrain late Friday, and reported that six were intercepted by U.S. and Bahraini air defenses while one fell short, with no U.S. personnel harmed. Vice President JD Vance said the United States would answer in kind, telling reporters that "violence will be met with violence" and that Iran could "pick up the phone" if it disputed how the two governments' agreement was being applied, according to CBS News.

The exchange followed a rapid sequence on Friday. Central Command said it downed four Iranian one-way attack drones near the Strait of Hormuz, then struck Iranian missile and drone storage locations and coastal radar sites. President Trump described the U.S. action as a response to what he called a "foolish violation" of a 60-day ceasefire after Iranian drones fired at shipping in the strait.

The two sides describe the retaliation in conflicting terms. The IRGC said it targeted the headquarters of the U.S. Fifth Fleet, an airbase and helicopters in a Gulf country, claims that news organizations reported from Iranian statements and that remain unverified. The missile launches themselves are corroborated by Central Command. Bahrain and Kuwait both condemned the attacks as violations of their sovereignty.

The fighting comes a little more than a week after Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian signed a memorandum of understanding intended to build toward a permanent peace deal, under which Iran agreed to use its best efforts to keep the strait open for toll-free passage. One of Thursday's drones struck the upper deck of the Singapore-flagged cargo vessel Ever Lovely off the coast of Oman, damaging the ship's bridge without causing injuries, according to U.S. and shipping accounts. An earlier phase of the conflict this month saw the IRGC briefly declare the strait closed to all vessels and strike U.S. and allied sites in the Gulf, according to Iranian statements reported by Al Jazeera.

Roughly a fifth of the world's traded oil passes through the waterway. Brent crude settled near $74 a barrel on Friday's session, down about 4 percent, a move traders attributed mainly to recovering tanker flows through Hormuz rather than to the military action, CNBC reported. That settlement preceded the late-Friday missile launches.