Iran targets Bahrain and Kuwait after renewed US strikes

A man inspects the aftermath at the site of an Israeli strike that hit the previous day in the southern Lebanese coastal city of Tyre on June 5, 2026. [AFP]

Iran fired missiles at US allies Bahrain and Kuwait on Saturday, after renewed American strikes against it, drawing a furious response from the Gulf monarchies and further undermining a fragile truce.

Weeks of complex talks marked by threats and flare-ups of violence have failed to secure a deal to end the Middle East war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a global trade route and chokepoint for Gulf oil and gas shipments.

On Saturday the island kingdom of Bahrain, which hosts the headquarters of the US Fifth Fleet, denounced the latest attacks against its territory and Kuwait. US Central Command (CENTCOM) said Iran launched seven ballistic missiles towards Kuwait and Bahrain.

Manama described the attacks, the second against both nations in three days, as "blatant aggression" and "a flagrant violation of the sovereignty of both countries".

In the Bahrain capital, an AFP journalist heard three explosions as air raid sirens sounded. In Kuwait, another AFP journalist heard repeated blasts near the country's international airport, which had been struck on Wednesday in an attack blamed on Iran that killed one person.

'Enemy bases'

"We woke up to a huge explosion. The explosions were very loud," Reem, an Egyptian mother of two, told AFP, after the latest blasts. "My children were terrified, and I couldn't calm them down."

Formally, a ceasefire in the war -- which was triggered almost 100 days ago by US and Israeli strikes that wiped out Iran's top leadership -- has been in place since April 8.

But tensions rose on Friday, when the US military said it struck radar sites in Iran after downing drones headed towards the strait.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said early Saturday they had targeted "enemy bases in the area" with missiles in response to a US operation targeting the country's Sirik and Qeshm islands.

"There are currently no reports of harm to US personnel, and Iranian claims of damaging US 5th fleet headquarters in Bahrain are false," CENTCOM said in a statement.

The latest flare-up came despite the United States moving ahead with allowing Iran's national football team to travel to the FIFA World Cup it is co-hosting with Canada and Mexico.

US Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack confirmed the visa issuances, saying that "sports transcends borders, and we look forward to welcoming competitors and fans from around the world".

However, Iran's Fars news agency reported that visas had yet to be issued for some members of the team's "technical and executive staff". The country's embassy in Turkey called their treatment "discriminatory" in a post on X.

An unnamed US administration official said in a statement: "We will not allow the Iranian team to abuse this system to sneak terrorists into the United States under false pretenses."

The team is due to fly from Turkey to Spain on Saturday before travelling on to their base camp in Mexico, where they will arrive on Sunday.

Trading strikes

Kuwait's military said early Saturday it was responding to "hostile" missile and drone attacks, days after a strike on the country's international airport killed one and wounded dozens.

US President Donald Trump told NBC News on Friday that Iran still retained roughly "21, 22 percent" of its missile stockpile despite Washington's repeated insistence that Tehran's military capacity had been crippled.

That figure was higher than the 18 percent Trump gave in May.

Efforts to turn the truce into a lasting settlement have repeatedly stalled, while the conflict has rattled global markets and increased political pressure on Trump at home ahead of midterm elections.

"The negotiations are at a deadlock and Trump must break this deadlock," Mohsen Rezaei, military adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, told CNN in an interview on Friday, as he called for the release of frozen Iranian assets to the tune of "$24 billion".

 Lebanon -- which was drawn into the Middle East war when Iran-backed Hezbollah attacked Israel on March 2 -- called Friday for Iran to stop interfering in its affairs.

On Saturday, Lebanon complained that an Israeli strike in the south of the country had killed several of its soldiers.

Israel and Hezbollah have traded attacks after a new truce deal was flatly rejected by the militant group. Iran, in its peace negotiations with Washington, has insisted that the fighting in Lebanon and the war in the Gulf are inextricably linked.