(AFP) – Iran attacked US military bases in Kuwait on Thursday, despite President Donald Trump threatening further strikes in a fresh flare-up six months into the war. The new clashes, which began with US raids on Sunday, deepen the ongoing impasse in the war, as Iran maintains a stranglehold on the strategic Strait of Hormuz and the US presses its counter-blockade of Iranian ports.
Trump said his military was prepared to attack Iran “any time we want” after extensive US bombardment of sites across the country left at least 19 Iranians dead between Tuesday and Wednesday. Tehran has once again retaliated with strikes across the Middle East this week, saying it targeted US bases and forces in the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan, and Iraq’s Kurdistan region.
Iran’s security chief Mohsen Rezaei warned the United States on Wednesday that Iran had adopted a “new strategy” in the war that “will shatter your foundations.” Iran’s pummelling of US military targets across the region came after a US attack that hit a wedding in the country’s south, prompting fury from Tehran. The Iranian Red Crescent said shrapnel from the missile attack in the coastal town of Kuhestak killed four people, including a child, and wounded more than 50. The US military did not address the attack directly, but US Central Command (CENTCOM) spokesman Tim Hawkins said, “the US military never targets civilians, unlike the IRGC,” referring to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
Kuwait’s army on Thursday said it was intercepting a missile and drone attack from Iran, with the Iranian army saying it hit “the Ahmad al-Jaber Air Base in Kuwait with missiles and drones.” Iran’s army also said it struck Al Minhad Air Base in the United Arab Emirates, but the Gulf country reported no such attack. Kuwait called the attacks “a direct threat to its security and stability, and the safety of its citizens and residents on its territory, and a grave breach of the rules of international law.”
Aside from military action, Washington has vowed to choke Iran’s economy, threatening to slap sanctions on its trade partners. Energy Secretary Chris Wright pledged on Wednesday that a US plan for expanded sanctions targeting the Islamic republic’s economic partners would deliver “absolutely maximum pressure.” Trump also suggested on Wednesday renaming the Strait of Hormuz, a major shipping lane that Tehran has effectively shut for six months, as “Trump Strait” — although he implied later that he wasn’t serious. “Now that we have it under U.S.A. control, should we change the name Hormuz Strait to TRUMP STRAIT???” the US president wrote on Truth Social.
Iran’s top negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf lashed out at Washington over the wedding attack, calling the United States “Satan.” “If a power acts like Satan, picks targets like Satan, and kills like Satan, it’s Satan,” he posted on X. Iranians meanwhile expressed dismay over the return to hostilities. Hossein Moazami, 50, who is self-employed, called the attacks “truly distressing.” “I hope they all return to the negotiating table because the only people suffering from this are the Iranian people,” he said. “The Americans are on the other side of the world and nothing happens to them.”
A video shared by an Iranian government account showed debris and damage at what it said was the wedding site in Kuhestak following the US strike, with people heard screaming in the background. “It is a very saddening incident,” Ali Mallahi, father of the bride and owner of the building that was hit, said in a video carried by state TV. “Thank God the casualties were not higher.”
The war erupted on February 28 with US-Israeli attacks on Iran that killed its supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. A fragile ceasefire collapsed in July after attacks on commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of world oil supplies previously flowed. Israel’s defense minister meanwhile said his country was prepared to respond “with great force” if attacked by Iran over the Jewish high holiday season, which begins in mid-September. “For now, they are striking throughout the region except us,” Israel Katz said.
burs/cl/sla/cms/abs/ris/jsa – AFP bureaus in Tehran, Washington and Dubai
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