Iran confirms targeting US air base in Kuwait

DUBAI — Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said early Thursday that it targeted a US airbase in Kuwait in response to an American aerial strike near the Bandar Abbas airport in southern Iran. According to Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency, the IRGC’s retaliatory strike came at 4.50 am (0120GMT), hours after what it described as a US assault on a point near the port city’s airport using aerial projectiles. “This response is a serious warning so that the enemy knows that aggression will not go unanswered, and if repeated, our response will be more decisive,” it said. Kuwait said its air defenses intercepted and destroyed hostile missile and drone threats on Thursday. The Kuwaiti army said any sounds of explosions heard in the country were the result of air-defense systems intercepting the ‌threats, and urged ‌people to follow security ‌and ⁠safety instructions issued by ⁠authorities. Kuwait’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs “strongly” condemned on Thursday the Iranian attacks on its territory, describing them as “a dangerous escalation and flagrant violation” of the country’s sovereignty. The head of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Jasem Mohamed Al-Budaiwi, has denounced an Iranian missile strike on a US airbase in Kuwait. “The secretary-general pointed out that the continuation of these treacherous attacks is a flagrant violation of the principles of international law, the Charter of the United Nations, and the principles of good neighbourliness,” a statement said. Earlier in the day, a US official told Anadolu that US forces shot down four Iranian drones that posed a threat near the Strait of Hormuz and struck an Iranian ground control station in Bandar Abbas that was preparing to launch a fifth drone. “These actions were measured, purely defensive, and intended to maintain the ceasefire,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The latest strikes came after US Central Command (CENTCOM) earlier this week confirmed a previous round of strikes on southern Iran targeting missile launch sites and Iranian boats allegedly attempting to lay mines. Iran condemned those strikes as a “grave violation of the ceasefire.”