Kuwaiti power plant ablaze as Iran hits US Gulf allies 

Iran has fired drones and missiles at Kuwait and Bahrain and claimed to have stopped two ships in the Strait of Hormuz after an eighth consecutive night of attacks by the United States.

Kuwait and Bahrain reported multiple waves of Iranian strikes on Sunday, with Kuwaiti authorities saying one attack started a fire at a power and water plant.

Both countries, which host US military installations, have borne the brunt of attacks by Iran on its Gulf neighbours since hostilities resumed this month all but shattering the US-Iran ceasefire.

Kuwait’s Ministry of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy condemned the “heinous Iranian aggression”, while Bahrain’s military said its air defences had also thwarted “treacherous” Iranian attacks.

Iran’s army said that one of its Sunday attacks on Kuwait targeted a US ammunition depot at Camp al-Adiri and air defence radars at Ali Al Salem airbase, which hosts US personnel.

In a statement on the IRIB broadcaster, Iran’s army said its soldiers would “remain firm and steadfast” in defending the Iranian people “against the enemies of Iran and humanity”.

Also on Sunday, Israel’s military said an Iranian missile was fired towards the Jordanian city of Aqaba, as sirens reportedly sounded in Jordan. Israeli and Jordanian forces intercepted the Iranian missile, the Israeli military told AFP.

Iran’s latest attacks follow a series of overnight US strikes on Iran that Washington said aimed to “punish” Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) forces responsible for earlier attacks in Jordan that killed two US service members. The US military said the strikes also sought to “degrade Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz”.

The US attacks struck areas in Iran’s Hormozgan and Khuzestan provinces, as well as Qeshm Island, according to Iranian media reports. They were less intense than previous nights of US attacks, reported Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi from Tehran.

Later on Sunday, Iran’s nuclear energy agency said the US attacked an under-construction nuclear power plant in the country’s south-west, which it condemned as a breach of international law.

There were signs on Sunday of further turmoil in the Strait of Hormuz, where the IRGC said it blocked two ships that tried to use an “unsafe route”. It said both had been involved in an unspecified “accident”.

The status of Hormuz has proven to be a major point of contention following the US-Iran Memorandum of Understanding signed last month, which extended the April ceasefire and agreed to the gradual reopening of the waterway. Iranian officials said Tehran has the right to continue managing shipping through the strait. The US says Iran does not control the waterway and reimposed its own blockade of Iranian ports.

Paul Musgrave, professor of government at Georgetown University in Qatar, said Iran has the “upper hand” in terms of commitment to the war, which it sees as existential.

“Since February, the asymmetry on how interests have been conducted has been clear: the regime in Tehran is fighting an existential war. The United States and Israel are fighting a war over policy choices,” Musgrave told Al Jazeera.