U.S. and Iran Trade More Strikes, Testing Truce

Iran's military said it had launched strikes against U.S. targets in Bahrain and Kuwait early Sunday, the latest barrage in a flare-up of tit-for-tat hostilities that began Thursday and has threatened to undermine negotiations to end the Iran war.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard said in a statement carried by the country's state media that it had struck eight American targets, at a U.S. naval base in Bahrain and the Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait, in retaliation for U.S. attacks. It announced the strikes shortly after the U.S. military said it had conducted airstrikes on multiple targets in Iran in "direct response" to an Iranian attack earlier in the day on an oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz.

A British ship monitor reported the tanker had been hit by a projectile, but Iranian officials have not taken credit for the strike.

There were no immediate reports of American casualties or of major impacts or damage to U.S. assets early Sunday, according to a U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive operations.

Kuwait's army said early Sunday that it was responding to hostile missiles and drone threats, and Bahrain's interior ministry said alarm sirens had sounded, although neither country identified the source of the threat.

The United States and Iran exchanged heated rhetoric following the latest round of strikes. President Donald Trump posted a bellicose message on social media saying the barrage was intended to punish Iran for violating the current ceasefire. He said the U.S. military had hit missile and drone storage locations, as well as costal radar sites.

"There may come a point when we are no longer able to be reasonable, and will be forced to militarily complete the job that we very successfully started," he wrote. "If that happens, the Islamic Republic of Iran will no longer exist!"

The Revolutionary Guard said in its statement Sunday that U.S. bases in the region "will be experiencing hell during these days." Earlier, Iran's state broadcaster reported explosions in the coastal cities of Sirik, Kong and Bandar-e Lengeh near the Strait of Hormuz, an area that has been the target of past attacks. The official state news agency, IRNA, characterized the strikes in its news bulletin as a "violation of the ceasefire."

It is unclear whether days of back-and-forth attacks will halt talks to reach a final peace agreement. Each side seems to be testing each other's red lines and threats, analysts say, but neither seems eager to return to a full-blown war.

Earlier Saturday, Iran had launched attack drones at Bahrain, officials there said, apparently in retaliation for U.S. airstrikes on missile and drone sites in Iran the night before. The U.S. strikes were themselves a retaliation for an Iranian attack on a container ship on Thursday as it passed through the strait.

Hours later, a shipping monitor run by the British navy reported that a projectile had struck a tanker in the Strait of Hormuz. The ship, the Kiku, had left an oil field in Qatar two days earlier, flying a Panamanian flag, the U.S. official said. The strike was likely to further deter ships from passing through the waterway, which Iran had agreed to reopen as part of the ceasefire.

Before the last several days of attacks, that deal, signed earlier this month, had produced a relative calm in the region. A second, more difficult phase of negotiations over Iran's nuclear program had started in Switzerland. More vessels were passing through the Strait of Hormuz, and there were signs of progress toward an agreement, backed by the Trump administration, that would wind down the war's second front in Lebanon.

Here's what else we're covering:

-- Lebanon deal: The Trump administration announced an agreement between Israel and Lebanon on Friday that U.S. officials hope could help end the conflict there. The deal stipulates that Israeli forces withdraw from a small fraction of the territory they occupy in southern Lebanon, making way for Lebanon's army to take control. But Naim Kassem, Hezbollah's leader, said the agreement -- which effectively calls for the group's disarmament -- was "null and void" on Saturday.

-- Global energy: Oil prices had risen after the Iranian attack on Thursday but eased on Friday, falling to levels last seen before the war. The U.S. strikes on Iran came after markets had closed for the weekend.

-- Friday's strikes: The U.S. strikes against Iranian missile and drone targets on Friday lasted about 90 minutes, a U.S. official said. Six fighter jets struck four Iranian sites along the Strait of Hormuz and on Qeshm Island, according to the official, who requested anonymity to discuss the operation.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Copyright 2026 The New York Times Company

This story was originally published June 27, 2026 at 11:47 AM.