Muscat: The United States and Iran have exchanged military strikes as tensions escalated sharply, with US Central Command announcing that its forces had struck more than 80 targets in Iran. The strikes targeted Iranian air defence systems, command and control networks, coastal radar sites, anti-ship missile capabilities, and more than 60 small vessels belonging to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps at multiple locations, Central Command said in a statement.
According to Oman News Agency, the US military stated that the strikes were launched in response to Iranian attacks on three commercial vessels transiting the region. Iran's Revolutionary Guards reported that their naval and aerospace forces had carried out a joint operation using missiles and drones, striking 85 sites in the region in retaliation for the US attacks.
Separately, the IRGC confirmed it had shot down a US MQ-9 drone over Bushehr province in southern Iran, as reported by Iranian state television. Rocket warning sirens sounded in Bahrain following the US strikes, while Kuwaiti air defences intercepted a number of hostile drones and missiles.