Iran attacks US bases in Jordan and Bahrain

Iran attacked American bases in Jordan and Bahrain on Wednesday, warning its Gulf neighbours that they had a “responsibility” to stop the United States and Israel from using their territory to strike the Islamic republic. The strikes came after the US carried out its own attacks on Iran in response to the shooting down of an American helicopter, straining a ceasefire that took effect in April. The attacks have cast doubt on US President Donald Trump’s earlier claim that negotiations were in their “final throes” before reaching an enduring settlement to end the Middle East war.

The war, which began with US-Israeli strikes on Iran in February, threw the region into chaos and rattled global markets before a shaky truce began. Iranian forces fired “long-range missiles” and “targeted and destroyed four major targets” in Jordan, including F35 fighter nests at an air base and the US command centre in Al-Azraq, the country’s Revolutionary Guards said in a statement quoted by state-run IRNA news agency on Wednesday. Jordan’s military said it shot down five missiles from Iran, with no casualties or material damage, while Bahrain said it intercepted and destroyed “a number of Iranian aerial attacks”.

Elsewhere, the Kuwaiti military said its air defences were engaging “hostile aerial targets”. Iran has recently carried out deadly attacks there too. The incidents came after the US military said it had “completed” what Trump portrayed as a retaliatory assault on Iran over the downing of an Apache attack helicopter.

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US Central Command (CENTCOM), which oversees American forces in the Middle East, said on X that it had “struck Iranian air defense, ground control stations, and surveillance radar sites near the Strait of Hormuz with precision munitions from US Air Force and Navy fighter jets”. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had earlier threatened payback, saying on X: “The U.S. (has) opted to test our determination. Our Powerful Armed Forces will leave no attack or threat unanswered.”

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