The United States bombed radar and drone sites across Iran over the weekend after Tehran brought down an American MQ-1 drone. Iran further claimed a strike of its own as Kuwait reported drawing incoming fire.
The U.S. military’s Central Command said it carried out the strikes in Iran on Saturday and Sunday around the city of Geruk and on Qeshm Island, AP reports.
“The measured and deliberate strikes occurred … in response to aggressive Iranian actions that included the shootdown of a U.S. MQ-1 drone that was operating over international waters,” Central Command said.
“U.S. fighter aircraft swiftly responded by eliminating Iranian air defenses, a ground control station, and two one-way attack drones that posed clear threats to ships transiting regional waters.”
The AP report notes Kuwait said its air defenses opened fire early Monday morning to intercept incoming drone and missile fire.
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard at the same time claimed it responded to an American attack without saying where, likely referring to the attack on Kuwait.
In a statement carried by the state-run IRNA news agency, the Guard said U.S. forces had targeted a telecommunications tower with a “retaliatory strike.”
Kuwait is home to U.S. Army Central, the Mideast forward command for the Army. While the U.S. Air Force no longer flies the MQ-1 Predator, the U.S. Army still does.
Iranian state television later shared footage of the ballistic missile launch, including a close-up showing a sticker on its body depicting a bruised U.S. President Donald Trump overlaid on a “closed” Strait of Hormuz with the caption: “Until the last American soldier leaves the region.”
The strikes mark the latest exchange between the two sides after negotiations on a deal to end their months-long war failed to advance over the weekend.
Trump sent an amended peace proposal back to Tehran seeking more explicit commitments surrounding Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile, nuclear program, and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, as Breitbart News reported.
Trump declined to immediately approve a proposed framework agreement during a Situation Room meeting with senior advisers, according to multiple reports published Sunday.