Iran said it targeted U.S. radar and air defense installations in Bahrain and Kuwait on July 21, warning of stronger attacks as Yemen’s Houthi rebels threatened to block Saudi shipping through the Red Sea.
The United States carried out its 10th consecutive night of strikes against Iran hours earlier, targeting military command centers, maritime capabilities, missile and drone launch sites and air defense systems.
U.S. Central Command said the attacks were intended to reduce Iran’s ability to target commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they struck two air defense systems and a radar installation at U.S. sites in Bahrain, as well as missile defense, radar and satellite reception systems in Kuwait.
“The enemy should prepare for even more decisive and powerful waves of drone and missile attacks,” the Guards said in a statement carried by Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency.
There was no independent confirmation of damage at the U.S. facilities.
The latest American strikes followed the deaths of three U.S. service members in recent days. President Donald Trump warned that Iran would pay “many times over” for every American soldier killed.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, meanwhile, said the conflict had developed into “a full-scale war.”
Nearly 100 U.S. service members have been wounded since Washington resumed its strikes on July 7, according to the Pentagon. Most suffered minor concussions, and 96 percent have returned to duty.
In the Strait of Hormuz, the Guards said they stopped two “non-compliant oil tankers” after explosions caused large fires aboard the vessels.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency separately reported projectile strikes on tankers off Oman. One attack forced the vessel’s crew to abandon ship, according to the agency.
The latest escalation followed the collapse of an April ceasefire and a framework agreement reached in June. Tehran subsequently restored restrictions on shipping through Hormuz, while Washington reimposed its blockade of Iranian ports.
The strait carried about a fifth of globally traded oil before the war. Oil prices briefly reached a one-month high on July 20 before easing.
The threat to energy supplies increased after the Iran-backed Houthis announced an immediate maritime blockade on Saudi shipping through the Bab el-Mandeb strait, the gateway between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
The group did not explain how it intended to enforce the blockade.
Saudi Arabia has relied on its East-West Pipeline and the Red Sea port of Yanbu to export millions of barrels of oil while traffic through Hormuz remains restricted. About 12 percent of global trade normally passes through Bab el-Mandeb.
Saudi Arabia denounced the Houthi announcement, while its military said it would keep the waterway open and respond “swiftly and firmly” to threats against passing vessels.
The announcement followed an exchange of fire between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis last week, their most serious confrontation in years and a threat to a truce reached in 2022.
The U.S. State Department also renewed a worldwide caution advising Americans, particularly those in the Middle East, to exercise increased vigilance amid the possibility of further attacks and travel disruption.
Despite the fighting, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said exchanges with Washington through mediators were continuing.
Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni was in Islamabad for two days of talks with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and army chief Asim Munir as Pakistan continued its mediation efforts.
