Tehran/Dubai – Iran and the United States exchanged fresh military strikes on Sunday, sharply escalating tensions despite an existing ceasefire, with Tehran launching drone and missile attacks on American military installations in Bahrain and Kuwait while warning that continued US attacks could bring a “complete halt” to negotiations aimed at ending months of conflict.
The latest exchange followed a dispute over navigation through the Strait of Hormuz after a US-led multinational maritime body announced plans to expand an alternative shipping corridor near Oman without direct Iranian oversight, creating a new flashpoint with Tehran.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said the move violated understandings reached under a Pakistan-mediated memorandum of understanding recently signed between Tehran and Washington, under which Iran says responsibility for regulating maritime traffic through the strategic waterway rests with the Islamic Republic.
“Henceforth, vessels found to be in violation will be dealt with more firmly than before,” the IRGC said in a statement.
The Guard warned that “any future aggression by the enemy, regardless of the pretext and even if, as last night and tonight, it targets objectives deemed to be of minor importance, will be met with a crushing response”.
It further said, “The enemy should understand that violating the ceasefire constitutes a breach of Clause One of the Islamabad understanding and will result in the complete suspension of all related processes.”
The warning came shortly after the US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced fresh strikes on Iranian military targets.
According to CENTCOM, US forces struck Iranian military surveillance infrastructure, communication systems, air defence sites, drone storage facilities and naval minelaying capabilities after Iran allegedly attacked the Panamanian-flagged oil tanker Kiku in the Gulf.
The tanker, carrying crude oil for Qatar’s state-owned energy company, had departed a Qatari oil field earlier in the week and was bound for a port in the United Arab Emirates on the Gulf of Oman. According to US officials, it was using an internationally coordinated alternative shipping corridor established near Oman’s coastline rather than the Iran-approved route through the Strait of Hormuz.
US President Donald Trump accused Tehran of repeatedly violating the ceasefire.
“We struck Iranian missile and drone storage locations and coastal radar sites for violating the Ceasefire Agreement, AGAIN!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
He warned that Washington could soon reach a point where it could no longer remain restrained.
“If that happens, the Islamic Republic of Iran will no longer exist!” he wrote.
Iran rejected the accusation, insisting it was responding to repeated US ceasefire violations.
The IRGC said its Navy and Aerospace Force jointly carried out ballistic missile and drone strikes between 2:00 a.m. and 3:00 a.m. local time against what it described as eight key American military installations, including Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait and the headquarters of the US Fifth Fleet at Salman Port in Bahrain.
The Guard claimed the targeted facilities had been destroyed, although those claims could not be independently verified.
Kuwait said its air defence systems intercepted two incoming ballistic missiles and several drones targeting the country. Officials reported no casualties or material damage.
In Bahrain, the Interior Ministry said an Iranian strike damaged a residential building near Bahrain International Airport. Images released by authorities showed the upper floor of an eight-storey apartment building extensively damaged, although officials said there were no fatalities.
Bahrain hosts the headquarters of the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, which has repeatedly come under attack during the conflict.
The IRGC said Sunday’s operation was launched in retaliation for US strikes earlier in the day on five Iranian coastal military outposts.
“The aggressor enemy, whose very nature is characterised by breaking commitments and violating agreements, attacked five coastal outposts of the Islamic Republic in the early hours of today under the pretext of responding to the IRGC Navy’s confronting a trespassing vessel in the Strait of Hormuz,” the statement said.
Shortly after CENTCOM announced its operation, Iran’s state broadcaster IRIB, citing an informed military source, reported explosions in Sirik County in the southern province of Hormozgan.
According to the report, several projectiles struck a telecommunications tower near the village of Tahrouyi. Residents also reported multiple explosions on Qeshm Island, although officials did not immediately identify the precise targets.
The renewed exchange followed an incident on Friday in which the IRGC Navy fired warning shots at a commercial vessel attempting to transit the Strait of Hormuz through what Tehran described as an unauthorised shipping corridor.
CENTCOM subsequently announced strikes against Iranian military facilities, saying they were carried out in response to the targeting of the commercial oil tanker.
The Strait of Hormuz remains one of the world’s most important energy chokepoints, carrying roughly one-fifth of globally traded oil.
Iran maintains that enforcement of maritime traffic through the strait falls under its authority in accordance with the recently concluded Islamabad understanding brokered by Pakistan.
The latest escalation has renewed concerns over the durability of the ceasefire announced by President Trump on April 7, with both Tehran and Washington accusing each other of repeated violations.
While the United States says its latest military action was a defensive response to attacks on commercial shipping, Iran insists it is responding to continued American and Israeli aggression and has warned that any further violations of the ceasefire could derail negotiations aimed at bringing the conflict to a permanent end.
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