Iran and US exchange fire after Trump dampens hopes of end to conflict
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard said it targeted a US base in response to what it described as an early morning US attack near Bandar Abbas airport
Iran has targeted a US airbase after the US military carried out what a Washington official said were strikes targeting an Iranian drone operation near the Strait of Hormuz.
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The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it targeted a US base in response to what it described as an early morning US attack near Bandar Abbas airport, Tasnim news agency reported.
The escalation in hostilities highlighted threats to the tenuous ceasefire between the US and Iran that took effect in early April, dampening hopes of a peace deal.
The US official, who requested anonymity to speak candidly about military operations, told Reuters the military shot down four Iranian attack drones and struck a ground control station in the port city of Bandar Abbas that was about to launch a fifth drone.
"These actions were measured, purely defensive and intended to maintain the ceasefire," the official said.
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Kuwait - which hosts a large US base - said it was responding to missile and drone attacks without saying where the attacks were coming from.
Israel, which has been fighting Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon, also reported sounding sirens regarding hostile aircraft activity in northern Israel.
The escalation sent oil prices soaring again which, having fallen more than 5% on Wednesday, rebounded after reports of the escalation in hostilities.
It comes after the US president on Wednesday dampened hopes of an imminent peace deal when he dismissed a report that Iran and Oman would manage shipping through the Strait of Hormuz as part of a deal to end the war.
At a cabinet meeting attended by media on Wednesday, Trump dismissed an Iranian state TV report that it had obtained an unofficial draft of an agreement to restore commercial shipping through the strait to prewar levels within a month, with Iran and Oman jointly managing traffic.
That framework also would have the United States lift its blockade of Iranian ports and withdraw military forces from Iran's vicinity.
Mr Trump said no single country would have control over the waterway, and appeared to threaten Oman, a country with which the United States has decades-long military and economic ties.
"Nobody's going to control (the strait)," Mr Trump said at a cabinet meeting attended by reporters.