Iran says it has carried out drone strikes on US military facilities across the Middle East, retaliating for the 13th consecutive night of American attacks on the country. Explosions were reported along Iran's Gulf coast and in western, northern and central areas, with four people killed and five injured in a south-western attack, according to Iranian state media. Iran later announced strikes on US-allied Kuwait, while sirens sounded in Bahrain and Jordan, and flights were suspended at a major Iraqi airport after a reported drone crash.
The escalation came as US President Donald Trump said damages to ships and cargo in the Strait of Hormuz would be paid for by “Iranian Money that the United States has in its possession, and controls”. “These damages may be very substantial but, nevertheless, this is the fair and equitable thing to do,” he posted on Truth Social. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi responded that seizing another country’s assets to “pay for unrelated future claims is an incendiary precedent” and warned: “Ensuing chaos will not be pretty or peaceful.”
“Iran drones strike US bases as Russia kills 10 at Kyiv arms fair, escalating two-front crisis.”
The confrontations in the Gulf unfolded against a backdrop of renewed violence in Ukraine, where at least 21 people were killed Friday in Russian and Ukrainian long-range strikes. The most deadly attack was a Russian missile strike outside Kyiv that hit an arms exhibition, killing at least 10 people and wounding around 100, Ukraine’s prosecutor general said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the strike on social media: “Russia has long abandoned any regard for international norms – and for human values. Their only interest is in continuing the killing.” The strike came a day after Zelensky met in Kyiv with senior representatives of Raytheon, the US company that makes Patriot air defence systems.
A Russian aerial bomb also killed five people in the frontline city of Sloviansk and damaged Latvia’s honorary consulate there. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Brussels would summon Russia’s EU envoy over the attack and proposed more listings aimed at Russia’s military-industrial complex. “Russia’s indiscriminate attacks on Kyiv and other regions cause civilian casualties by design, not by accident,” Kallas wrote on X. “The strike on Latvia’s Honorary Consulate in Slovyansk underscores Moscow’s utter disregard for international law.”
With the US pushing to regain control over the Strait of Hormuz, growing concern over new threats to shipping from Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis has helped push the price of crude oil back over $100 a barrel – the highest level since May. Trump separately vowed “major military punishment” against Iran for Houthi attacks, while both the Gulf and Ukraine wars show no sign of de-escalation.