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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iran's military said Friday it launched a drone attack on American military facilities in Kuwait, describing the assault as retaliation for what it called a deadly US strike on a "residential home" in southern Iran, as military escalation between the two sides in the region continues.
The Iranian army said in a statement that its "suicide drones" targeted US "fighter jet hangars, satellite communication systems, and equipment warehouses" at the Ahmad al-Jaber Air Base in Kuwait, which it described as a facility that "plays a major role in US air and surveillance operations" and ranks among the "vital air support hubs" for the US military.
The attack came "in response" to recent US strikes on Iran, the army said, pointing specifically to what it called a "brutal attack" hours earlier on a residential home on Qeshm Island in southern Iran.
Iran's state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported Friday that three members of a single family - a father, mother, and their two-year-old child - were killed under the rubble in the Chah Tangu neighborhood of Qeshm city, while two other children were pulled from the debris by emergency teams and taken to a local hospital for treatment.
The Iranian army condemned the incident in Qeshm, saying "crimes, sanctions, and threats will only make Iran more united and cohesive in its defense," and adding that intercepting Iranian drones and missiles has proven "extremely costly and difficult" for the US.
The statement comes a day after Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed on Thursday that its "aerospace forces attacked the parking ramp and maintenance hangar of the American enemy's F-35 fighters at the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base [al-Azraq Air Base] with several ballistic missiles, completely destroying three F-35 aircraft and causing heavy damage to three others."
"Several enemy officers, technical crew, and maintenance personnel were also killed" in the purported assault, the Corps added.
The Jordanian armed forces, however, later reported that the kingdom's air defenses had intercepted five missiles launched from Iran.
The US Central Command likewise described the IRGC's claim that "three U.S. F-35 stealth fighters and three other aircraft were destroyed during a recent Iranian attack on an American air base" as false, stressing that "no U.S. aircraft were destroyed or damaged in recent attempted Iranian attacks."
The latest escalation comes after the US carried out a new wave of strikes against Iran on Thursday, resuming hostilities that had briefly paused on Friday following strikes and counterstrikes that had continued since July 8.
The tensions persist despite Tehran and Washington signing the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding in mid-June, which established a ceasefire on all fronts and reopened the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping.
CENTCOM reported Thursday, however, that its forces have "redirected 24 commercial vessels, disabled two, and boarded two" en route to Iranian territories "to ensure full compliance" with a maritime blockade it reinstated earlier this month on Iranian ports.
