Air raid sirens sound in Bahrain, Kuwait as Iran retaliates against US strikes

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - DUBAI — Air raid sirens sounded in Bahrain and Kuwait early Wednesday following US strikes against Iran in response to Tuesday's attacks on commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz.

"The siren has been sounded. Citizens and residents are urged to remain calm and head to the nearest safe place," Bahrain's Ministry of Interior said in a post on the US social media platform X.

US officials said Iran's military launched drones toward Bahrain, the Axios news site reported.

Meanwhile, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it conducted a missile and drone operation targeting 85 key US military facilities across the region, including the US Fifth Fleet headquarters at Bahrain’s Salman Port and the Ali Al Salem airbase in Kuwait, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.

The IRGC also shot down an enemy MQ9 drone that was attempting to interfere with the operation, it added.

The Kuwaiti Army said in a post on X that its air defenses "are currently confronting hostile missile and drone attacks."

"The General Staff of the Army notes that if explosion sounds are heard, they are the result of air defense systems intercepting the hostile attacks," it said, urging everyone to adhere to security and safety instructions issued by authorities.

The alerts came shortly after the US military said it had completed a new round of strikes against Iran, hitting more than 80 targets in response to the latest Iranian attacks on commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz.

The strikes were conducted "as an immediate response to attacks by Iran on commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz," the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement

The following hours saw sirens sound for a second time in Bahrain, with the Gulf island nation again urging residents to remain calm and seek shelter. The cause of these sirens was not immediately clear.

The US military launched new attacks on Iran on Tuesday in response to its alleged attacks on three commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz, US Central Command said.

The latest attacks further raised fears for the fragile US-Iran ceasefire as the two countries try to reach a lasting agreement to end the war that began with US-Israeli strikes on Iran in February.

David Des Roches, a former Pentagon director of Gulf and Arabian Peninsula affairs, said Iran has violated its memorandum of understanding with the US by attacking ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

Under Article 4, “the US pledged to limit the reciprocal naval blockade of Iran and allow the sale of Iranian oil, which it did” while Article 5 states that “Iran will allow civilian shipping to proceed without fees and will make efforts to clear the shipping channels that have been blocked,” Des Roches told Al Jazeera.

“So there was clearly a violation of Article 5 and it’s being met by a lifting of the waivers on sales of Iranian oil and then by attacks on the capability of Iran to attack shipping,” he said.

“What’s interesting, though, is that the United States has not reimposed the reciprocal naval blockade on Iran. So, this can be viewed as a limited retaliation for the attacks on the civilian ships.”