BRIDGEWATER, N.J. (AP) — The U.S. military said it shot down Iranian ballistic missiles and drones launched toward the Strait of Hormuz and Gulf Arab allies on Friday, while striking some of the Islamic Republic’s coastal surveillance radar sites in response, an exchange of fire that further frayed a shaky ceasefire with Tehran.
The exchange of strikes comes as the Trump administration to make a deal to end the conflict.
U.S. Central Command said on social media Friday night that Iran fired seven ballistic missiles toward Kuwait and Bahrain, with U.S. forces intercepting six of the missiles and a seventh failing to reach its target. The military said there were no reports of harm to U.S. personnel.
The ballistic missiles were fired after the U.S. earlier in the day shot down four Iranian drones that were launched toward Strait of Hormuz.
“The attack drones posed an immediate threat to regional maritime traffic,” U.S. Central Command said on social media.
Kuwaiti’s military said forces were intercepting missiles and drones attacking the country, while Bahrain activated air raid sirens and told residents to move to the nearest safe location and follow official instructions.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said it targeted the Ali Al Salem airbase, which hosts U.S. forces in Kuwait, and the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet in the tiny Gulf island nation of Bahrain, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.
The U.S. military is enforcing a blockade on Iranian ports in response to Tehran’s chokehold on the crucial corridor for global oil and natural gas shipments, which has sent energy prices spiking and for President Donald Trump's Republican Party ahead of the midterm congressional elections.
U.S. Central Command said it hit the radar sites, including an island in the strait, “to defend against further attacks.”
Trump promises a quick end to US-Iran conflict
It was the latest in back-and-forth attacks that have strained the tenuous ceasefire in and to extend that truce. Earlier this week, Iranian drones heavily at Kuwait’s main airport, killing one person, wounding dozens and briefly closing the airfield.
Despite the attacks raising new concerns that the ceasefire could collapse, Trump told reporters Friday that “the situation with Iran seems to be going quite well.”
“We’re going to come out of Iran very quickly and it’s going to be very strong one way or the other, whether it’s a piece of paper or the very tough way,” Trump said at an event with farmers in Wisconsin. “The very tough way is maybe the easier way, but we’re going to come out, and your fertilizer prices are going to go way down, just like they were four months ago.”
Trump increasingly on a conflict that has settled into a holding pattern. U.S. and Iranian negotiators a week ago to extend by 60 days and start a new round of talks . But Trump has called for unspecified changes and Iranian officials have shown no public signs of signing off on the deal.
Asked on Friday why it was taking so long, Trump told NBC’s “Meet the Press” it was because “it’s a very hard thing for them,” citing their “great independence” and the fact that “they’re strong, they’re proud.”
“There are things they never thought they’d be doing that they’re going to have to do. They’ve got no choice, and it takes a little while,” he said in the interview.
Trump said the Iranians still have 21% to 22% of their missiles.
Israeli strikes on Lebanon continue
His administration also has touted to this week by the Lebanese government and Israel after U.S.-brokered talks in Washington. However, the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group has rejected the agreement and new attacks have put it at further risk.
The Israeli military on Friday and issued evacuation warnings for nine villages, including one that has sheltered thousands of people displaced by the fighting. The strikes killed nine people in six locations in southern Lebanon, the state news agency reported.
The Israeli military said two soldiers were wounded, one severely, in an encounter Friday with militants in southern Lebanon.
The fighting in Lebanon, where Israeli forces have seized large swaths of the south, also threatens efforts to end the Iran war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz because Iran has demanded that any lasting truce extend to Lebanon.
Besides the drone interception in the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. military said earlier Friday that its forces boarded a sanctioned oil tanker linked to Iran in the Indian Ocean as the United States seeks to prevent Iran from profiting off its oil and other goods.
The U.S. also targeted Iran’s energy sector with new sanctions on a group of people, firms and tankers.
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Magdy reported from Cairo.
