Bahrain intercepted several Iranian aerial attacks on Sunday, marking a sharp rise in regional tensions. The island kingdom’s air-defence systems destroyed the incoming drones after months of calm. "Iran continues its systematic hostile approach," the Bahrain Defence Force said. These strikes targeted a US air defence radar facility in Riffa.
Bahrain says it has intercepted two Iranian barrages this week after months of relative calm
Bahrain said its air-defence systems intercepted and destroyed several Iranian aerial attacks on Sunday, issuing the first threat alert to the public since September as the Islamic republic resumed attacks on the Gulf state.
The island kingdom, which is home to the US Navy's Fifth Fleet, also said on Friday that it had intercepted two Iranian drones in what marked the first such attack in two months.
"Iran continues its systematic hostile approach," Bahrain's Defence Force said on Sunday in a statement published by the official state news agency BNA. Authorities had earlier in the day urged citizens to remain calm and seek shelter after air sirens sounded.
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Sunday's attack had targeted the US air defence radar facility at Riffa air base in Bahrain, using six drones in what it claimed were "successful precision strikes".
The latest attacks come as the US and Iran remain locked in a volatile stand-off over the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for the transport of global energy and commodity supplies.
Iran insists it must retain control over the strait and has repeatedly attacked shipping in an effort to close the waterway to what it describes as "unauthorised" traffic.
The US military has in turn pursued a campaign to escort vessels through and keep energy supplies flowing. US forces hit targets on Iran's Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz earlier this month.
The Islamic republic on Sunday accused the US of trying "to smuggle oil" through the strait, and foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said that Iran would not leave any military aggression by the US or other parties "unanswered".
"We have demonstrated this in action before, and will continue to act in ways deemed appropriate by our powerful armed forces," he told a news briefing when asked about the Bahrain strike on Sunday.
The US and Iran have exchanged repeated tit-for-tat strikes despite a ceasefire in April that brought to a halt the most intense fighting, which started with a US-Israeli attack on Iran on February 28.
Efforts to negotiate a lasting peace deal between the US and Iran to end the war have made limited progress, however. Regional mediators, led by Qatar, have for weeks been trying to broker an interim deal, but Donald Trump has oscillated on his objectives.
In the build-up to this month's US midterm elections, the president had repeatedly threatened to resume the war, but has since downplayed the prospect of both military action and the need for a deal.
Trump this week signalled an end to apparent efforts by vice-president JD Vance to negotiate a peace agreement with Iran and announced plans to maintain the "status quo".
"We don't need a deal with Iran. Those days have long since passed. We've got their money, Hundreds of Billions of Dollars, and we've got their Strait [of Hormuz]!" the US president posted on his Truth Social platform on Thursday.