Dubai: The United States bombed Iranian radar and drone control sites in Iran after Tehran shot down an American MQ-1 Predator drone this weekend, the American military said Monday.
Iran acknowledged launching a retaliatory strike, while Kuwait said it was intercepting incoming drone and missile fire.
The duelling attacks reflect the fragility of a weekslong ceasefire in the Iran war, which has seen repeated attacks even as American and Iranian officials try to negotiate a deal to extend it.
Iran has maintained its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz in the meantime, disrupting global energy supplies as a fifth of all oil and natural gas traded once passed through the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf.
Meanwhile, fighting continues to escalate as Israel extends its occupation of Lebanon beyond the Litani River and as the militant group Hezbollah continues to launch drones into Israel.
The US military’s Central Command said it carried out the strikes in Iran on Saturday and Sunday around the city of Geruk and on Qeshm Island.
The measured and deliberate strikes occurred … in response to aggressive Iranian actions that included the shootdown of a US MQ-1 drone that was operating over international waters, Central Command said.
US fighter aircraft swiftly responded by eliminating Iranian air defences, a ground control station, and two one-way attack drones that posed clear threats to ships transiting regional waters.
The Predator has been phased out of service by the US Air Force, which now flies the MQ-9 Reaper, though the US Army still flies the Predator. The US military said no American troops were hurt in the attacks.
Kuwait, meanwhile, said its air defences had opened fire early Monday morning to intercept incoming drone and missile fire. Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard in a statement carried by the state-run IRNA news agency, said that US forces had targeted a telecommunications tower on an island.
The Guard said it responded with an attack without saying where, likely referring to the attack on Kuwait.