Iran launched multiple rocket and drone attacks in the Persian Gulf and the U.S. military carried out an attack on Iran’s Qeshm Island, officials said.
The attacks placed additional pressure on a shaky ceasefire and stalled peace talks between the U.S. and Iran, which were already tested by Israeli attacks in Lebanon.
“Iran launched several ballistic missiles toward regional neighbors; however, all failed to hit their intended targets. Two Iranian missiles fired at Kuwait fell short or broke apart enroute, and three missiles launched at Bahrain were immediately intercepted by U.S. and Bahrain air defense forces,” CENTCOM said in a post on X, noting that no U.S. personnel were injured.
“Moments earlier, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces shot down three one-way attack drones launched by Iran toward civilian mariners that were rightfully transiting regional waters. American forces also conducted self-defense strikes on an Iranian military ground control station on Qeshm Island.”
A short time later, CENTCOM noted in a post on X that another wave of Iranian drones targeting U.S. personnel in Kuwait had “failed to impact intended targets.”
The strikes continued Wednesday morning, with Kuwait saying several people were injured after a number of hostile drones targeted its international airport.
The attack caused significant damage to the airport’s Terminal 1, said Ministry of Defense spokesman Col. Saud Abdulaziz Al-Atwan. Kuwait’s civil aviation authority said all air traffic was suspended as a result.
CENTCOM announced earlier that it had disabled a Botswana-flagged tanker as it headed toward Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil terminal.
“The ship’s crew ignored repeated warnings, failing to comply with directions from U.S. forces multiple times over a 24-hour period,” CENTCOM said in a post on X. “A U.S. aircraft ultimately disabled the vessel by firing a Hellfire missile into the ship’s engine room, preventing the tanker from reaching Iran.”
The post also noted that the U.S. military has “disabled six commercial vessels and redirected 122” since a blockade against Iran’s ports was started on April 13.
The Trump administration also tried to ramp up pressure on the Iranian regime by other means on Tuesday. “The United States is sanctioning Iran’s largest digital asset exchanges and their leadership for supporting the Iranian regime’s terrorist activities and sanctions evasion efforts,” the State Department said in a statement.
Separately, the Israeli military launched deadly new strikes in Lebanon on Tuesday after accusing Hezbollah of launching attacks overnight, despite President Donald Trump saying both sides had agreed to de-escalate after Iran threatened to pull out of peace talks.
Trump said Monday night that he had spoken with both sides and that they agreed “all shooting will stop” after Tehran signaled that Israel’s intensifying military operations in Lebanon could derail efforts to end the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Talks with Tehran were ongoing, Trump said.
The Lebanese Embassy in Washington said Hezbollah had accepted the terms of a U.S. proposal for a “mutual cessation of attacks,” which would also block Israel from attacking Beirut. Its threat to do so had sparked panic in the Lebanese capital, after the U.S. ally’s deepest incursion into its neighbor in 26 years.
Despite the claims of a renewed ceasefire in Lebanon, clashes continued Tuesday morning.
Israel continued to launch its own strikes on Lebanon, with the Lebanese Civil Defense saying on its Facebook page Tuesday that six people had been killed in an Israeli strike Monday night in the village of Marwaniyeh in southern Lebanon. It was not clear exactly when that strike was launched.
The agency said Tuesday that one of its centers, in Nabatieh in southern Lebanon, had been subject to “direct targeting as a result of a hostile Israeli airstrike.” It said the building was damaged, along with equipment inside.
The Lebanese army later reported that two soldiers had been wounded as a result of being targeted by an Israeli hostile drone in Nabatieh.
The Israeli military told NBC News that it had launched at least one strike in Nabatieh, but said it was targeting what it described as Hezbollah infrastructure.
It said earlier that it had intercepted at least two projectiles overnight that had crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory, with no injuries reported. Hours later, it said sirens had sounded in northern Israel and that it had identified a “suspicious aerial target” in an area where Israeli soldiers were operating in southern Lebanon.
Trump said on his Truth Social platform Monday that he had a “very productive” call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — and that there would be “no Troops going to Beirut, and any Troops that are on their way, have already been turned back.”
Trump lashed out at Netanyahu and called him “crazy” in the “expletive-laden” call, Axios reported, citing multiple sources. The White House and Netanyahu’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment from NBC News.
A U.S. official familiar with the call and another source familiar with the call told NBC News that the call was tense but not as aggressive as has been reported.
The source familiar with the call said there were two conversations between Trump and Netanyahu on Monday. One of the calls was described by the U.S. official and the source familiar with the call as not pleasant, but they said it did not include the kind of language that has been reported elsewhere.
That call included language that was not unusual for Trump to use in his relationship with Netanyahu, according to the source familiar with the call who added that sometimes the two leaders don’t see eye to eye.
Trump did tell Netanyahu during the call that the prime minister needs to scale back Israeli attacks in Beirut because they risk derailing a possible deal with Iran, the U.S. official familiar with the call said.
The call came after Netanyahu said he had ordered strikes on “terror targets” in Beirut’s southern suburbs in response to attacks from Hezbollah.
That sparked panicked scenes with people rushing to flee the capital, where thousands of displaced Lebanese sought shelter after being displaced from their homes in the south by Israel’s aerial and ground assault.
Netanyahu later posted on X that Israel would strike Beirut if Hezbollah attacks do not stop.
Trump said he also had a “very good call with Hezbollah, and they agreed that all shooting will stop — That Israel will not attack them, and they will not attack Israel.” The call appeared to mark the first time an American president has communicated either directly or through intermediaries with Hezbollah, which is designated a terrorist organization by the U.S.
Trump’s intervention came after Iran threatened to abandon negotiations with the U.S. that had seemed on the verge of a deal just a week ago.
“The Iranian negotiating team will suspend ‘talks and the exchange of texts through mediators,’” the semiofficial news agency Tasnim reported Monday in the wake of Israel’s declared plan to strike Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf told Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri that Iran might retaliate if Israeli attacks in Lebanon continued.
“Over the past two days, we have seriously pursued efforts to stop Israel’s attacks. If these crimes continue, we will not only suspend the negotiation process, but we will also stand against the Zionist regime,” Ghalibaf warned, according to the state-owned Islamic Republic News Agency.
“If an agreement is reached to end the war between Iran and the United States, it will include a halt to attacks on all fronts, especially in Lebanon,” he said.
Trump told NBC News that he was not informed of the decision to suspend negotiations ahead of time but that “I think it’s fine if they’re done talking.”
“It’s an appropriate thing to say, because they’re better negotiators than they are fighters,” he said in a brief phone call. “But they haven’t informed us of that.”
“Talks are continuing, at a rapid pace, with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Trump said in a subsequent Truth Social post.
