The United States carried out attacks against Iranian radars and drone command and control centers on the Iranian islands of Goruk and Qeshm over the weekend, CENTCOM (US Central Command) reported in the early hours of this Monday (1st).
The strikes were a response to “aggressive actions by Iran, including the shooting down of a US MQ-1 drone operating over international waters”, the US military said in a post on X. CENTCOM classified the offensive as “”.
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM)
“United States combat aircraft responded quickly, destroying Iranian air defenses, a ground control station, and two one-way attack drones that posed clear threats to vessels transiting the region’s waters,” the US statement said.
No American service members were injured, according to CENTCOM. The Command also stated that it “will continue to protect assets and respond to Iranian aggression deemed unjustified during the current ceasefire.”
In the early hours of Monday, Kuwait, home to a US military base, intercepted Iranian missile and drone attacks as sirens sounded across the country, state news agency KUNA reported, without providing further details.
Remember how the war in Iran began
On February 28, United States President Donald Trump announced a “large-scale” attack on Iran, stating that the country’s main objective was “to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime.”
According to him, these threats included Tehran’s nuclear program – a recurring point of friction that has also hampered the most recent negotiations to end the fighting.
The joint attacks by the US and Israel against Iran — which resulted in the death of the then supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — caused thousands of deaths across the country and damage to dozens of museums, historic buildings and cultural sites, according to Iranian media outlets and authorities.
In response, Iran launched a series of retaliatory attacks across the Middle East and effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway through which about 20% of the world’s oil passes.
Weeks before the war began, the Trump administration carried out the largest military buildup in the Middle East since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, triggering warnings of an escalation in regional violence if a conflict erupted.
At the same time, US envoys held regular talks with Iran about a possible new nuclear deal. But these negotiations were unable to avoid military action, with at the time rejecting “all opportunities to renounce its nuclear ambitions”.
The outbreak of war in February also followed mass anti-regime protests in Iran the previous month, fueled by economic discontent amid skyrocketing costs.
*with information from Reuters
