Bahrain Says It Intercepted Iranian Drone Strikes Targeting US Airbase

Bahrain said its air defenses intercepted multiple aerial attacks early Sunday after Iran launched a six-drone strike aimed at a United States airbase in the Gulf kingdom.

Bahraini officials said the incoming drones were brought down before reaching their targets. Tehran offered a different account, claiming its forces had successfully struck a base.

The attack came two days after Iran said it had hit a United States early-warning radar facility, also located in Bahrain. The United States military denied that claim, saying American defenses intercepted the drones without any damage.

The Gulf kingdom had not come under Iranian fire since a blitz in September. At the time, United States Navy Secretary Hung Cao said the Iranian military "blew the hell" out of it.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Sunday's strikes were carried out in retaliation for "hostile US actions," according to Iran's Fars News Agency. Speaking at a press conference on Sunday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said his country would keep responding to military aggression by the United States and other nations.

The United States continues to enforce a naval blockade in the Strait of Hormuz as the war stretches past the eight-month mark. American forces have also kept up limited defensive strikes, including an operation earlier this month in which warplanes hit an anti-aircraft site on Qeshm Island and a target on another island in the strait.

Efforts to negotiate an end to the conflict have stalled. President Trump earlier this week declared the war "effectively over" and said it had been "won" by the United States, adding that he was unlikely to order new attacks as long as talks to end the fighting continued positively.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian struck a different tone on Wednesday, accusing the United States of threatening to attack his country with the "mother of all bombs," the largest non-nuclear weapon in the American arsenal, even as Washington pursues a peace deal.

Regional powers quickly rallied behind the Gulf kingdom. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan and Egypt each condemned Iran's Sunday attacks in statements of solidarity with Bahrain.