Jennifer A. Dlouhy and Veena Ali-Khan
American forces have come under Iranian missile and drone fire in the Persian Gulf as the war that began nearly 100 days ago continues to simmer, with a resolution apparently no closer.
Six ballistic missiles fired at Bahrain and Kuwait “were intercepted, and a seventh did not reach its intended target,” US Central Command (Centcom) said in a statement late on Friday (Saturday AEST).
Four Iranian drones headed towards the Strait of Hormuz, which has been largely closed off since the war began on February 28, were also shot down, Centcom said.
It added that US armed forces “subsequently struck Iranian coastal surveillance radar sites in Goruk and on Qeshm Island to defend against further attacks”.
The Kuwaiti military said its air defences were “currently repelling hostile drone and missile assaults,” according to a post on X by the Kuwait News Agency, and that the sounds of blasts were “national air defence systems’ interception of the incoming hostile attacks”.
On Wednesday, one person was killed, and more than 60 people were injured after Iranian drones hit Kuwait’s international airport. Iran denied that attack, claiming it was caused by a faulty American missile interceptor.
In Bahrain, the Interior Ministry advised residents to remain calm and head to their nearest safe location.
Speaking to NBC News earlier on Friday, US President Donald Trump conceded that Iran had some missile and drone capacity, despite moments earlier saying the US had “totally destroyed” the country’s military capabilities and that it was “virtually decapitated”.
He said Iran still had about 21-22 per cent of its missile arsenal remaining.
“It’s a lot of missiles, but it’s not what it was when we first attacked,” he told the television network during a visit to Wisconsin.
The president has insisted for months that Iran was near its breaking point. Earlier on Friday, he told reporters the US was “having great success with Iran”, and “they’re in no position to have a nuclear weapon”.
Iran has demanded a ceasefire in Lebanon, where Israeli troops and the Hezbollah militia have been fighting, before an accord can be reached with the US.
A military adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei told CNN that “the ball is in Trump’s court” when it comes to a deal, insisting on the unfreezing of $US24 billion ($33.6 billion) in Iranian assets.
Regional anxieties heightened
Hezbollah this week rejected a US-brokered ceasefire that had been announced by the State Department just hours before.
The attacks by Iran on other Persian Gulf nations have heightened anxieties across the region. The image of that part of the Middle East as a haven for international business and tourism was abruptly shattered when Tehran carried out a wave of strikes shortly after the war began, and the region’s leaders fear they will be dragged into a fresh bout of open conflict.
Trump on Friday again downplayed the higher cost of oil, which has pushed up petrol prices since the US and Israel attacked Iran in February.
“People thought it was going to be a lot worse,” he told reporters. “Today I looked at $96 a barrel – people thought that was going to be $300 a barrel.”
Meanwhile, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said there had been “no tangible progress” in talks even though the two sides continued to exchange messages via mediators.
No commercial shipping transited the Strait of Hormuz on Friday morning, with three passages in each direction seen the previous day, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.
Without a breakthrough in negotiations, the continuing stand-off suggests Iranian leaders believe they can hold out, gambling that the disapproval of the war, which pollsters record among American voters, just months before elections that will decide control of Congress, will force Trump to abandon some of his objectives.
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