Iran and US step up attacks and threaten to escalate

Hours later, alarms sounded for a second time in Bahrain, where authorities said an Iranian attack damaged a residential building in Muharraq province, with no casualties reported. Bahrain urged the UN Security Council to hold an urgent session to hold Iran accountable.

The Kuwaiti army said it had intercepted two ballistic missiles with no damage or casualties.

Separately, Qatar said one of its nationals had died after sustaining injuries from shrapnel aboard a vessel that had gone missing on Saturday. A second person was injured in the incident, which was due to “military operations in the area”, the interior ministry said, without giving a location or apportioning blame.

FOCUS ON STRAIT, SHAKY CEASEFIRE IN LEBANON

US Central Command said its forces had carried out the new strikes after a Panama-flagged tanker was attacked by an Iranian drone on Saturday.

“Iran was given a chance to honor the ceasefire agreement but elected not to,” Central Command said in a statement.

US strikes were “in direct response to continued Iranian aggression against commercial shipping” and targeted Iranian military surveillance, communications, air defence, drone storage and mine-laying facilities, it said.

Explosions were heard in Sirik in southern Iran, Iranian state broadcaster IRIB said without providing details. The Guards said, “America’s blind shots at Sirik will not resolve our dominance over the Strait of Hormuz. But our shots at violators will remind the rest of the vessels of the clear passage route.”