US attacks Iranian sites after Iran launches drones, in latest Gulf flare-up

DUBAI/WASHINGTON, June 6 - U.S. forces struck Iranian coastal radar sites on Saturday after shooting down drones launched by Iran toward the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. military said, in the latest escalation complicating efforts to end the war between the two countries.

The U.S. military believes the four Iranian drones were targeting regional maritime traffic, a U.S. official told Reuters. U.S. Central Command said on X that the U.S. then struck Iran's surveillance sites in Goruk and Qeshm Island, which are both on the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had targeted U.S. bases in Kuwait and Bahrain in retaliation for U.S. strikes and fired on four tankers attempting to cross the strait without its permission.

Kuwait's state media said air defences were intercepting missile and drone attacks, while in Bahrain sirens sounded and residents were urged to seek shelter.

Kuwait and Bahrain condemned the strikes. Kuwait's foreign ministry described the Iranian attacks, including the latest strike early on Saturday, as a "blatant act of aggression" that ignored international calls to halt such actions and posed a direct threat to citizens, residents, and regional security, a ministry statement said.

Iran later said it had hit U.S. bases in both countries with ballistic missiles but the U.S. military said six missiles were intercepted and a seventh did not reach its target.

The U.S. and Iran have been engaged in largely indirect negotiations to secure an interim deal to halt the three-month-old war that would leave issues including Iran's nuclear programme to further negotiations.

Tehran wants access to billions of dollars in oil revenue, waivers on sanctions on crude exports, the lifting of a U.S. blockade on its ports and leverage over the strait. Iran has effectively blocked the waterway, where about a fifth of the world's oil transited before the war.

Iranian state media reported that Mohsin Naqvi, the interior minister of Pakistan, which has been mediating an end to the conflict, was on his way to Tehran on Saturday. There was no immediate confirmation of the report from Islamabad.

U.S. President Donald Trump is facing mounting domestic political pressure due to rising gas prices to bring the unpopular war to an end. He told NBC that while most of Iran's drone and missile manufacturing facilities had been destroyed, the Iranians still have access to about a fifth of their missiles.

"They have some missiles, they have some drones. I would say percentage wise, maybe 21%-22% of their missiles. It's a lot of missiles, but it's n