Iran’s military has launched a series of attacks targeting US military assets at Kuwait’s Ahmad Al-Jaber airbase, with the country describing the operation as retaliation for recent US strikes. The strike came just one day after the United States carried out airstrikes against Iran, which killed three people on Qeshm island and damaged buildings in Fars province.
The Iranian army claimed that its forces had targeted strategic US military facilities at Kuwait’s Ahmad Al-Jaber airbase using drones, describing the operation as a response to a US attack on a residential home on Qeshm island. The strike was described by Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim news agency as “retaliation for recent US strikes”.
The US has not yet responded to the Iranian attack, and specific details about the damage and casualties are not known. However, citing Iran’s claimed attack on a US military base in Jordan, Ali Akbar Dareini, a Tehran-based researcher at the Center for Strategic Studies, told Al Jazeera that Tehran believes Washington is amassing equipment there in preparation for a major attack.
Iran does not want to “allow the US to decide when to start the war, when to pause temporarily and when to restart the war”, according to Dareini. Instead, Iran wants a complete, permanent end to war or a wide-scale regional war. The Iranian military has sought to expand the conflict’s geographical scope by targeting staging grounds for future operations.
The latest attacks have sparked fears of the war expanding geographically – and may even have overlapped with the war in Ukraine. Recent attacks in Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia have raised concerns that the conflict could spread beyond its current borders.
Iran has also launched a drone attack against Kuwait’s Defence Ministry, targeting buildings belonging to Chinese companies in the country’s north. The Iranian military claimed that “with the help of God Almighty, the aggressor will be punished today”, according to Iran’s Fars news agency.
The US Central Command (CENTCOM) said it struck dozens of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targets in Iran overnight on Wednesday, including a residential building on Qeshm island. Three people were killed and explosions were heard in several provinces.
China has condemned the attack, with its Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning saying that Beijing had concluded the attack had not affected any Chinese citizens. China has also asked Kuwait to take necessary measures to protect Chinese nationals and institutions.
The war between Iran and the US is ongoing, with multiple fronts including Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Ukraine. The conflict has raised concerns about regional stability and global security.
Source: Al Jazeera
Based on reporting from Al Jazeera.
