US and Iran exchange strikes in Gulf, in the newest flare up

 More new attacks across the Middle East on Friday, threatened to, kind of unravel an already brittle US-Iran ceasefire.

For weeks there were complicated talks, full of warnings and sudden surges of violence, and still they couldnt land a solid deal to stop the war, and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial, narrow passage for energy that the whole world depends on. A ceasefire in the wider Middle East conflict, started almost 100 days ago after US and Israeli strikes, killed off Iran’s highest leadership, has been running since April 8. Still, the pressure jumped back up again on Friday, when the US military said it hit radar locations in Iran after shooting down drones that were headed toward the strait. Soon after, air raid sirens started in nearby Gulf states Kuwait and Bahrain—both US allies—and AFP reporters in both places said they heard blasts. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said early Saturday they went after “enemy bases in the area” with missiles, as a reply to a US “invasion” of the country’s Sirik and Qeshm islands. US Central Command, Centcom, said Iran fired seven ballistic missiles at Kuwait and Bahrain. Centcom added that six of those missiles were intercepted or downed, while the seventh “did not reach its intended target.” “There are currently no reports of harm to US personnel, and Iranian claims of damaging US 5th fleet headquarters in Bahrain are false,” the command said, in a statement.

The latest flare-up came even though the United States went ahead with allowing Iran’s national football team to travel to the FIFA World Cup that it is co-hosting together with Canada and Mexico. US Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack confirmed the visa issuances, saying that “sports transcends borders and we look forward to welcoming competitors, and fans from around the world”. Still, Iran’s Fars news agency reported that visas had not yet been issued for some members of the team’s “technical and executive staff” , basically the key admin group. An unnamed US administration official said in a statement: “We will not allow the Iranian team to abuse this system to sneak terrorists into the United States under false pretenses”. The squad is expected to fly from Turkey to Spain on Saturday, then go on to their base camp in Mexico where they will reach on Sunday.

Trading strikes:

Earlier Friday , Centcom said its forces also downed four Iranian drones that were headed toward the Strait of Hormuz. Then they struck Iranian coastal radar installations in Goruk ,and also on Qeshm Island. “The attack drones posed an immediate threat to regional maritime traffic” , while the strikes on radar installations “defend against further attacks,” it said, in a statement.

Iranian state television IRIB said early Saturday, local time, that “several explosions were heard” in Sirik, in southern Iran, at around 2:30am (2300 GMT Friday) , though. “Following the invasion of the child killing and terrorist US army into Sirik and Qeshm Island, enemy bases in the region were hit by aerial missiles,” IRIB reported, and it was quoting the Guards after the US strikes on Iran. Kuwait’s military said early on Saturday that it was responding to “hostile” missile and drone attacks, just days after a strike on the country’s international airport killed one person and wounded dozens. “Kuwaiti air defenses are currently responding to hostile missile and drone attacks,” the military said on X, and it did not specify where the attacks came from or anything like that. US President Donald Trump told NBC News on Friday that Iran still kept roughly “21, 22 per cent” of its missile stockpile, even with repeated claims from US officials that Tehran’s military capacity had been crippled. That number was higher than the 18pc Trump said back in May.