The US has targeted a military facility in Iran and downed four attack drones, US officials said, which prompted an apparent Iranian retaliatory attack on an American airbase in Kuwait, in fresh signs that any peace agreement remains elusive.
US Central Command forces shot down four Iranian one-way attack drones that posed a threat around the Hormuz strait, according to the officials, and struck a ground control station in the port city of Bandar Abbas that was about to launch a fifth drone. Iranian state broadcaster Irib reported later on Thursday the Revolutionary Guards had targeted an American base in Kuwait “that served as the source of the attack”.
Kuwait’s army confirmed its air defences were intercepting missile and drone threats just before 6am in Kuwait City.
Earlier, Donald Trump dismissed a report that Iran and Oman would manage shipping through the strait of Hormuz as part of a deal to end the war.
Oil prices jumped on Thursday – erasing much of Wednesday’s decline – amid the latest test of the ceasefire, with Trump warning he may have to “finish the job” and Tehran saying its forces are still “lying in wait with full magazines”. Brent North Sea crude – the main international benchmark – rose by 1.8% in Thursday morning trade to $95.95 a barrel.
But mixed signals underscored the fragile state of talks. Iran said a return to war was unlikely, while Trump told a televised White House cabinet meeting that Tehran “very much” wanted a deal but had not yet offered enough.
“So far they haven’t gotten there. We’re not satisfied with it, but we will be,” the US president said. “Either that or we’ll have to just finish the job.”
Here are the other main developments:
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The Israeli military declared a new swathe of southern Lebanon a combat zone and said residents in the area should move north, warning it would act “with great force” against the Iran-backed Hezbollah in the zone. The statement on Wednesday appeared to signal a further escalation after more than 120 strikes hit Lebanon’s south and east on Tuesday, despite a ceasefire.
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The major Lebanese city of Tyre has come under constant Israeli bombardment, according to local media. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it is hitting Hezbollah targets in the ancient coastal city in southern Lebanon, a day after issuing a warning forcing thousands of people to leave Tyre and surrounding areas. Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported two people were killed in Tyre in an Israeli drone strike on Thursday morning.
A fireball and smoke erupt from a building after an Israeli strike in Tyre, southern Lebanon, on Thursday. Photograph: Kawant Haju/AFP/Getty Images-
Trump appeared to direct a warning at Oman – a US ally and mediator in the Iran conflict – when asked about a possible short-term arrangement allowing Iran and Oman to control the strait of Hormuz. “No, the strait is going to be open to everybody,” he said. “It’s international waters and Oman will behave just like everybody else or we’ll have to blow them up. They understand that, they’ll be fine.”
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Trump’s “rhetoric” would not force Iran to back away from its demands to enrich uranium, wield authority over the strait and see sanctions against it lifted, said Ebrahim Azizi, head of the Iranian parliament’s national security committee. “It is obvious Trump, seeking a way out of this strategic deadlock, alternates between issuing threats and appealing for an agreement,” Azizi said on X.
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Hamas has confirmed that Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City killed the new leader of Hamas’ military wing. The group said on Wednesday that Mohammed Odeh was killed the previous day, along with his wife and two of his children.
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More Israeli strikes in the city on Wednesday evening killed at least seven people, including two children and a woman. More than 20 people were wounded, including several children, according to Shifa hospital.
