US shoots down Iranian drones, Kuwait faces a missile attack

The fragile ceasefire between the United States and Iran has suffered its most serious rupture, with both sides exchanging direct military strikes near the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz. In the early hours on Thursday, the US military shot down four Iranian attack drones that were threatening American forces and commercial shipping in the waterway and struck an Iranian ground control station in the port city of Bandar Abbas that was preparing to launch a fifth drone. US CENTCOM described the actions as “measured, purely defensive, and intended to maintain the ceasefire”. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps acknowledged the US strikes near Bandar Abbas and said it had retaliated by targeting an American military base, though the IRGC did not specify the base’s location.
Kuwait accused Iran and its proxies of launching drone attacks targeting vital facilities despite a two-week ceasefire. Kuwait’s Foreign Ministry, in a statement carried by state news agency KUNA, said the drone attacks struck “some vital Kuwaiti facilities”. Kuwait’s foreign ministry said the attacks threatened civilians and vital facilities and came as regional and international efforts were underway to reduce tensions. The ministry demanded that Iran immediately and unconditionally stop the attacks and said Tehran bore full responsibility for the serious breach of international law, the UN Charter and UN Security Council Resolution 2817.
US Central Command said on Thursday that Iran fired a ballistic missile toward Kuwait in an “egregious ceasefire violation.” CENTCOM said Kuwaiti forces intercepted the missile, which it said was launched at 10:17 p.m. ET on May 27. It said the missile launch came hours after Iranian forces launched five one-way attack drones that posed a threat in and near the Strait of Hormuz.