Iran strikes US air base in Kuwait, injuring 7 after attack on Hormozgan communications tower

Four US service members and three civilian contractors were injured in an Iranian ballistic missile strike on a US air base in Kuwait, launched in response to an American air strike in southern Iran, according to a media report citing unnamed US officials on Sunday.

All seven suffered minor injuries and returned to duty within 24 hours, broadcaster CBS News said.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said early on Monday that it struck a US air base allegedly used to launch an attack on a telecommunications tower on Sirik Island in southern Hormozgan province, according to Iran’s Mehr News Agency.

In a statement cited by Mehr, the IRGC said its Aerospace Force targeted and destroyed the base from which US forces had launched the operation against the communications facility.

The IRGC said the strike was carried out hours after the reported US attack and claimed that all predetermined targets were successfully hit.

The force also warned that any further attacks would trigger a response “different in scale and nature,” adding that responsibility for any escalation would rest with the United States.

There was no immediate comment from US authorities on the Iranian claims.

Sirik Island is located near the strategically important Strait of Hormuz.

Regional tensions escalated on February 28, when the US and Israel launched attacks on Iran, prompting Tehran to retaliate with barrages of drones and missiles that hit targets across the region and to close the Strait of Hormuz.

A ceasefire took effect on April 8 through Pakistani mediation, but talks in Islamabad failed to produce a lasting agreement.

US President Donald Trump later extended the truce indefinitely while maintaining a blockade on vessels travelling to or from Iranian ports through the strategic waterway and periodically saying a peace deal was close.

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Source: TRT