The United States has carried out several strikes on Iran around the Strait of Hormuz, and Tehran claimed attacks on US rocket launcher systems in Kuwait.
Axios reported on Sunday, citing a senior US official, that the strikes also targeted small speedboats belonging to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps at several locations around the strategic waterway.
Multiple explosions were heard in Iran’s southern port city of Bandar Abbas and on nearby Qeshm Island, according to the semi-official Fars News Agency.
Fars reported that explosions were heard east of Bandar Abbas and in the waters off Qeshm Island, while residents of the village of Mesen on the southern part of the island also reported hearing several blasts.
Qeshm Governor Hossein Amir Teymouri said 10 to 11 “enemy” projectiles struck the island in the Strait of Hormuz, targeting military sites.
He told the state-run IRNA news agency that no casualties were reported on Qeshm Island.
However, Iranian state media said one employee of the Mobile Communications Company of Iran was killed and two of his colleagues were injured in an attack on Farur in Bandar Lengeh, in the southern province of Hormozgan.
The employee was killed while carrying out his duties, IRNA reported.
Two projectiles struck Iran's Abu Musa Island near the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s Mehr News Agency reported.
Attacks against Kuwait
The renewed exchange of strikes also reached Kuwait, where the defence ministry said three northern border posts and an offshore oil platform were attacked.
“Three land border posts in the north of the country were subjected to a cowardly attack, resulting in material damage,” the ministry said, without specifying the origin of the assault.
It added that an offshore drilling platform belonging to the Kuwait Oil Company was targeted by a hostile drone, causing material damage and injuring one worker.
Fars reported Iran targeted US rocket launcher systems in Kuwait in a drone operation.
‘Catastrophic consequences’
As tensions escalated, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an immediate end to attacks in the Gulf and urged Iran and the US to resume negotiations.
Guterres is “deeply concerned” by the renewed confrontations, including Iranian attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz, US strikes on Iran, and Iranian attacks on targets in neighbouring countries, his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.
“These attacks must all stop,” the statement said.
The UN chief called on all parties to exercise maximum restraint, avoid further escalation and take immediate steps to ease tensions.
He warned that a return to full-scale hostilities would have “catastrophic consequences” for the people of the region, international peace and security, and the global economy.
Guterres also stressed the need to restore full freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz and urged Tehran and Washington to urgently return to negotiations.
