The US and Iran traded fresh strikes in the Gulf on Wednesday, jolting a ceasefire that had been holding since April and pushing the confrontation back toward the Strait of Hormuz. US forces shot down four Iranian one-way attack drones headed toward the waterway, then hit Iranian coastal surveillance radar sites in the south, while Iran fired ballistic missiles at two US air bases in Kuwait and facilities used by the US Navy in Bahrain.
The latest exchange came as Iran’s World Cup football team has already been granted US visas ahead of its first match in Los Angeles on 15 June, a reminder that Washington is still trying to keep one channel open even as the military one frays. The missile count showed how close the Gulf came to another escalation: Centcom said six of seven Iranian missiles were intercepted and one never reached its target.
For shipping and energy markets, the setting matters as much as the salvos. The Strait of Hormuz carries around 20% of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas, and Iran had effectively closed it after the US and Israel launched wide-ranging strikes on 28 February, setting off a chain of attacks that spread from Israel to US-allied states in the Gulf. That history is why every drone launch and missile intercept now lands far beyond the military targets it is aimed at.
The airport strike in Kuwait showed how messy the conflict has become. One person was killed and more than 60 were injured in drone strikes on Kuwait’s international airport on Wednesday, but Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps denied it was behind the attack and said the damage came from “error from a US missile interceptor.” Centcom called it “a deliberate, calculated and unjustified attack,” a bluntly different account that leaves the question of responsibility unresolved even as both sides keep shooting.
That dispute matters because the ceasefire is not being tested in a vacuum. The truce has been in place only since April, negotiations have stalled, and US media reported that President Donald Trump asked for changes to the terms of an agreement. Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman has accused Washington of “constantly changing its views and putting forward new or contradictory demands,” which is where the talks stand now: alive, but moving in no clear direction, with the next exchange likely to shape whether the ceasefire survives at all.
