The United States said on Sunday that it had conducted a round of “self-defense strikes” on military targets in southern Iran over the weekend, the latest in a series of attacks over the past week.
Less than an hour later, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said that its forces had targeted a military base from which it said an American attack on a communications facility in southern Iran had originated.
The Kuwaiti military said on social media early Monday that its air defenses were “confronting hostile missile and drone attacks,” without saying where they had originated. Kuwait hosts U.S. military bases but it was not immediately clear if the attacks on Monday were connected to the US. or Iranian strikes.
The exchanges may further complicate U.S.-Iranian negotiations over a potential framework for a deal to end the war.
The latest U.S. strikes on Iran’s Persian Gulf coast targeted radar and command and control sites for drones in the city of Goruk and the Island of Qeshm, U.S. Central Command said in a statement late Sunday.
Central Command said that the U.S. strikes on Saturday and Sunday were a response to what it described as “aggressive Iranian actions,” including the shooting down of a remotely piloted American military drone that had been operating over international waters.
The Revolutionary Guards said in a statement early Monday that Iran had targeted a military base, the country’s state news agency reported. The statement described the move as a retaliation for an American strike on a communications tower on an island in the south.
The statement, which did not identify the base, said that Iran would respond differently if such attacks were repeated.
The U.S. strike appeared to be the third round of American attacks in southern Iran in the past week.
Farnaz Fassihi and Sanam Mahoozi contributed reporting.
