Iran attacks US bases in Kuwait, UAE

Iran’s army yesterday said it targeted US bases in the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, despite threats of further strikes by US President Donald Trump.

“This morning, the army hit the satellite communication systems, equipment depots and fighter aircraft hangars of the terrorist US army at the Ahmad al-Jaber Air Base in Kuwait with missiles and drones,” the army said in a statement carried by state TV.

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It added that “the location of forces and radar systems of the child-killing US army at the Al Minhad Air Base in the UAE were also attacked by missiles and drones of the army”.

Iran’s health ministry said at least 18 people were killed and 142 wounded in US attacks between Aug 30 and Sept 2. Forty four of those injured were children, and among the dead were one child and two women. Iran’s Tasnim news agency said six members of the Iranian army’s naval forces were also killed by the US attacks.

Trump said on Wednesday that the renewed ​US campaign against Iran ‌would not continue for “too long” after the biggest exchange of fire between ​Tehran and Washington since July.

He ​told reporters in the Oval Office that Iran was ​trying to build a rocket that ​drops mines and the US had destroyed it. Trump also said Iran ​had been working to ​restore its radar and missile systems, which ‌were also targeted in the US strikes.

Amid the latest flare-up, UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and President Trump discussed Middle East developments and bilateral cooperation during a phone call, UAE state news agency WAM said.

Meanwhile, Iran’s parliamentary National Security and Foreign Policy Commission head Ebrahim Azizi declared that the Strait of Hormuz will not be opened without Iran’s consent, emphasising that Iran has proven its ability to make its threats credible to the United States, Press TV reports.

The US military escorted 40 commercial vessels Tuesday that were carrying 18 million barrels of oil through the strait, CNN reports, marking a wartime high for the operations. US forces also struck nearly 60 Iranian military targets around the waterway during the operation, two US officials familiar with the operations told CNN.

In a separate development, Tehran has warned the US that it would respond forcefully to an Israeli offensive on a mountainous ridge in southern Lebanon where Iranian military personnel are holed up alongside Hezbollah fighters, three officials briefed on the message told Reuters.

The message, delivered last month, highlights Iran’s continued direct involvement in the ground fighting in southern Lebanon and its readiness to retaliate against Israeli attacks there as the regional war enters its seventh month.

Hezbollah is believed to have built an underground command centre and weapons stores within the Ali al-Taher ridge, which has a commanding view of southeastern Lebanon, according to Lebanese security sources, and has become one of the most contested pieces of ground in the Israel-Hezbollah war.