DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran carried out a drone attack aimed at Bahrain on Saturday, while a separate vessel in the Strait of Hormuz was also struck, in what appeared to be Tehran’s response to overnight U.S. airstrikes.
The latest strikes across the Persian Gulf underscored how quickly the war involving Iran could again spiral, despite Tehran and Washington having reached an interim understanding intended to pave the way for a final agreement to halt the fighting.
The United States said its airstrikes followed an Iranian drone attack Thursday on a ship attempting to leave the strait, extending a series of incidents that have strained the already fragile ceasefire.
At the same time, a U.S. Navy-supervised multinational maritime authority announced Saturday it would widen a route near Oman in the Strait of Hormuz to accommodate traffic moving in both directions — a move that could create another point of friction with Tehran.
Bahrain condemns Iran’s drone attack
Bahrain’s apparent targeting was unlikely to be accidental. The island kingdom has been among Iran’s most vocal critics and hosts the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet. It also recently welcomed U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio for a Gulf Cooperation Council foreign ministers’ meeting, which concluded with demands for Iran to stop its attacks and for the strait to remain fully open.
Bahrain’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that a “number of Iranian drones” had targeted the country, describing the assault as “a flagrant threat to the security of citizens and residents.”
Earlier Saturday, Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard released a statement, reported by the state-run IRNA news agency, claiming it had struck multiple sites belonging to what it called “the U.S. terrorist army in the region.”
The statement did not specify which locations had been targeted.
The U.S. military’s Central Command said the military struck Iranian missile and drone locations and coastal radar sites in the overnight strikes.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance, who has led the American negotiations with Iran, said on social media Friday night that Iran should “pick up the phone” if there are disagreements about the ceasefire agreement.
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“But violence will be met with violence,” Vance said.
The U.S. and Iran are still negotiating terms of the deal, including issues such as getting ships through the key strait and addressing the future of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium. Under the interim deal, the two sides have 60 days to work out the details.
Ship comes under attack as strait route expands
Meanwhile, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said that a tanker was attacked Saturday in the strait, saying the crew was safe and no environmental damage was reported. No one immediately claimed the strike, but suspicion immediately fell on Iran.
Just after the report of the ship attack, the Joint Maritime Information Center, overseen by the U.S. Navy, said the route near Oman’s shores is expanding to allow for both inbound and outbound traffic.
Iran has insisted ships must obey its orders and is warning it will start charging fees for transit through the strait, through which a fifth of all oil and natural gas once passed. However, ships have been increasingly trying to get out of the Gulf in recent days, to Iran’s ire.
Ebrahim Azizi, who heads the Iranian parliament’s national security commission, wrote Friday that “the Strait of Hormuz is governed by Iran, so: Respect the rules.”
The U.S. and Gulf Arab states have rejected Iran’s demands. The strait is considered around the world as an international waterway, despite being the territorial waters of Iran and Oman.
In its announcement, the Joint Maritime Information Center warned that the threat in the region to ships was “substantial.”
“Mariners are advised of the existence of mines and should expect a naval presence as clearance operations continue,” it said.
The video in the player above is from a previous report.
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