Wednesday’s strikes on Kuwait damaged airport facilities and diplomatic missions, killing one person and injuring more than 60 others, Kuwaiti authorities and state media said.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard denied firing at Kuwait’s airport and blamed the destruction on U.S. interceptor missiles that it said failed to hit their targets, according to Iranian state media.
The U.S. military rejected that account, saying Iranian drones deliberately targeted the airport and a video appears to expose the Iranian regime's lie.
The incident came as the conflict widened across the Gulf. Iranian media said the Revolutionary Guards also attacked the headquarters of the U.S. Fifth Fleet in Bahrain and a U.S. airbase. U.S. Central Command denied that any U.S. bases had been hit and said Iranian ballistic missiles failed to strike their targets in the region.
CENTCOM said it responded with a new round of “defensive strikes” in southern Iran, targeting missile launch sites and Iranian boats allegedly preparing to lay mines. It also said U.S. forces struck Qeshm Island, near the Strait of Hormuz, after attempted Iranian attacks.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who is globally questioned about his whereabouts or physical well-being, claimed Thursday that Iran’s enemies had suffered a “decisive blow” in both military clashes and domestic unrest
He also urged Iranians to stay united and avoid repeating what he called the enemy’s message.
“The malicious enemy has been defeated in its confrontation with the Armed Forces,” Khamenei said in an English-language statement posted to X on the anniversary of the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. “Since it has received a decisive blow both in military combat and in [Iran's] public squares and streets, it’s experiencing a profound, significant humiliation.”
Khamenei accused the U.S. and Israel of trying to block Iran’s rise, saying “imperialism, led by the US, has built a military base called Israel over the past 80 years.” He added that Iran’s enemies “don’t accept the existence of a strong, independent Iran.”
The Iranian leader also warned that Tehran’s adversaries were using “hybrid warfare” to weaken the country from within.
“The instrument it’s using for both is sowing the seeds of doubt, despair, fear, mistrust, & discord,” Khamenei said.
He urged Iranians to resist that pressure through unity and discipline.
“In confronting the enemy's malice, everyone must thwart its sinister scheme by way of their steadfastness, clear-sightedness, preserving unity, and refraining from echoing the enemy's narrative,” Khamenei said.
Khamenei also warned that “any action that causes the distrust and discouragement of the Iranian people is considered to be a form of helping the enemy of this country and its people.”
Sirens sounded Thursday in the northern Israeli area of Hanita over a suspected hostile aircraft infiltration, the Israeli military said, according to a Reuters alert.
The IDF did not immediately provide further details on whether an aircraft or drone had entered Israeli airspace, whether an interception was attempted or whether there were any casualties or damage.
Hezbollah rejected a ceasefire plan agreed by the Lebanese and Israeli governments in U.S.-mediated talks, as Israel kept up strikes in southern Lebanon on Thursday and said it wouldn't be withdrawing from the south.
The United States announced Wednesday that Lebanon and Israel had agreed to implement a ceasefire contingent on Iran-backed Hezbollah ceasing fire and evacuating its fighters from areas of southern Lebanon near the border.
Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem, whose Lebanese Shi'ite Muslim group is not a party to the talks, said the negotiations were shameless, rejecting the Washington declaration as "a roadmap for the annihilation of a section of the Lebanese people and the enslavement of the rest."
"As long as the occupation exists, the resistance will continue," he said in a written statement.
Reuters contributed to this report.
{{#rendered}}Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem warned Thursday that northern Israel would remain under threat as long as Israeli strikes continue hitting Lebanon villages.
Qassem said as long as Lebanese villages were being bombed and people were being killed, northern Israel will not be safe, according to Reuters.
The warning came as fighting across the Israel-Lebanon border continues to test efforts to contain the wider regional conflict.
Hezbollah has repeatedly linked its attacks on northern Israel to Israeli military operations in Lebanon, while Israel has said it will continue targeting Hezbollah positions that threaten its territory.
Qassem’s comments add fresh uncertainty to ceasefire efforts, with Lebanon and Israel facing pressure to halt the cross-border escalation.
The remarks also signal that Hezbollah intends to keep military pressure on northern Israel unless strikes in Lebanon stop.
Reuters contributed to this report.
The Israel Defense Forces accused Hezbollah on Thursday of firing the mortar shells that struck a UNIFIL position in southern Lebanon, killing one U.N. personnel member and injuring two others.
"Overnight, the IDF identified several launches in the area of Al-Qatrani carried out by the Hezbollah terrorist organization that landed inside a UNIFIL force position in the Dibbine area in southern Lebanon,” the IDF said in a statement "As a result of the launches, a UN personnel member was killed, and two others were injured.
"An examination of the launch trajectory clearly indicates that the fire was carried out by the Hezbollah terrorist organization.
"Hezbollah’s launches endanger international forces and also harm UN personnel operating in the area."
UNIFIL said earlier that a U.N. peacekeeper died Thursday from wounds sustained when mortar shells hit his position near Marjayoun in southeastern Lebanon late Wednesday night.
The mission said two other peacekeepers were wounded and that it had opened an investigation. UNIFIL did not say where the shells originated.
Fox News' Yonat Friling and Reuters contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump blasted House GOP "grandstanders" who voted to limit his war powers during negotiations with Iran, calling the measure “meaningless” and accusing four Republicans who joined Democrats of undercutting him at a critical moment.
"Yesterday, in a meaningless vote, the House voted, 4 bad Republicans and all of the Dumocrats, to limit my War Powers, right in the middle of my final negotiations to end the War with the Islamic Republic of Iran," Trump wrote Thursday morning on Truth Social.
"Who would do such an unpatriotic thing. They know where the negotiations stand.
"The Democrats are fueled by Trump Derangement Syndrome. They would rather have our Country fail than give me another, of many, victories. The four Republicans, that’s a whole other story - They’re GRANDSTANDERS! They should be ashamed of themselves. MAGA!!!"
Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., Warren Davison, R-Ohio, Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., and Tom Barrett, R-Mich., were the lone Republicans to buck the president and support the war powers resolution.
The resolution will likely go nowhere, with significant procedural and political hurdles still ahead. But the House vote marked a rare bipartisan rebuke of Trump’s Iran policy and exposed Republican unease over the scope and duration of U.S. military involvement in the region.
{{#rendered}}Four House Republicans broke from President Donald Trump in 215-208 vote to withdraw troops from using military force against Iran absent congressional authorization.
All Democrats present voted for the measure to effectively halt the U.S. military campaign against Iran.
Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., Warren Davison, R-Ohio, Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., and Tom Barrett, R-Mich., were the lone Republicans to buck the president and support the war powers resolution.
This is an excerpt from Fox News' Adam Pack, Tyler Olson and Chad Pergram report.
President Donald Trump suggested Wednesday there could be progress in negotiations with Iran as soon as this weekend, as his administration faces pressure to bring down fuel prices.
“If it happens, it could happen over the weekend,” Trump told reporters during an Oval Office news conference.
Trump said parties were working to separate the issue of reopening the strait from the conflict in Lebanon.
“We could go another 2 or 3 weeks and just wipe everybody out: I’d rather not do that, very easy to do,” Trump said. “They want to do it. But if we can get something done in writing which will accomplish the same thing without killing everybody, I’d like to do that.”
Trump administration is hopeful for progress toward ending the wider U.S.-Israeli war with Iran after securing a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Tehran has made a ceasefire in Lebanon a condition for any peace deal with Washington and has suggested it could intervene directly in support of Hezbollah if Israel continues or escalates attacks there.
"We could go another 2 or 3 weeks and just wipe everybody out: I'd rather not do that, very easy to do," Trump said at an Oval Office news conference Wednesday.
"They want to do it. But if we can get something done in writing which will accomplish the same thing without killing everybody, I'd like to do that. Most of my people, I think, would like to do that – some people wouldn't, but most of them would."
That remark came before House lawmakers voted 215-208 to withdraw troops from using military force against Iran absent congressional authorization.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said Thursday that the ceasefire would come into force within 24 hours of approval by all concerned parties, in an apparent reference to Hezbollah.
Hezbollah has not publicly commented on the agreement.
But the durability of the truce remains uncertain. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Thursday that Israel’s military would continue to strike in Lebanon for the time being and would not withdraw from the south.
The agreement follows a flare-up in violence across the region. Israeli strikes killed at least six people in southern Lebanon, while U.S. and Iranian forces traded attacks in the Gulf on Wednesday in one of the most intense rounds of fighting since a separate ceasefire halted large-scale U.S.-Israeli bombing of Iran in early April.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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