IRGC Strikes US Airbase in Retaliation; Kuwait Air Defences Intercept Threats
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said overnight it targeted a US airbase after US military strikes on what a Washington official described as an Iranian drone operation that “posed a threat to US forces and commercial maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz”. The IRGC said “aggression will not go unanswered” and threatened “a more decisive response” to any further US attacks. Kuwait’s army said on Thursday its air defences were intercepting hostile missile and drone threats. The escalation collapses the framework-deal optimism of the past 72 hours and dampens hopes for a near-term ceasefire extension.
The US strikes hit an Iranian drone operation near the Strait of Hormuz; CENTCOM had described Monday’s strikes as “self-defence” targeting IRGC mine-laying boats and a Bandar Abbas SAM site. The retaliatory IRGC airbase strike is the first kinetic Iranian response since the April 7 ceasefire. The IRGC framing — “more decisive response” if further US attacks — sets up a tit-for-tat escalation cycle that could collapse the ceasefire entirely. Iran’s foreign ministry separately said on Tuesday that “the United States has violated the ceasefire” with the strikes in Hormozgan province. The Kuwait air-defence activity is the most operationally significant Gulf-state involvement since the war began.