US and Iran exchange blows

U.S. military forces intercepted four Iranian "suicide drones" launched toward the Strait of Hormuz, which they stated posed a direct threat to regional maritime traffic. Following the drone incident, U.S. forces struck Iranian coastal surveillance radars in the country's south to protect against further attacks, U.S. Central Command (Centcom) reported.

Iran retaliated by firing ballistic missiles at two U.S. air bases in Kuwait and U.S. Navy facilities in Bahrain, according to Iran's state news agency Irib. Centcom indicated that initial assessments showed six out of seven Iranian missiles fired at the two Gulf states were intercepted, with one failing to reach its target.

This exchange occurred days after previous U.S. and Iranian strikes that threatened a ceasefire in place since April. Local officials reported that one person was killed and over 60 were injured in Iranian drone strikes at Kuwait International Airport on Wednesday. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) denied responsibility for the airport attack, attributing the damage to an error by a U.S. missile interceptor. Centcom refuted this, asserting that Iran's strike on the airport was a "deliberate, calculated, and unjustified attack."