Trump threatens to annihilate Iran after tit-for-tat attacks, recriminations over peace deal violations

Tehran said on Sunday it carried out a third day of retaliatory strikes against US attacks on Iranian territory, as both accused the other of violating their fragile ceasefire, straining negotiations meant to end the Middle East war. The exchanges underscored the fragility of a Pakistan-brokered peace process aimed at ending a war launched by the United States and Israel in February, which disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and rattled global energy markets. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Sunday they were taking measures to control traffic in the vital Strait of Hormuz and that violating vessels would be dealt with more firmly than before. The only authorised passage by Tehran passes through a corridor running along Iran’s coast. The Guards said they had also carried out retaliatory strikes in Kuwait and Bahrain. In a statement, they said the strikes “destroyed eight important US military facilities at the Ali al-Salem base in Kuwait and at the Fifth Fleet naval base in Port Salman in Bahrain”. “Any enemy aggression, whatever the pretext, even against insignificant targets… will have a crushing response,” the IRGC said. Air raid sirens rang out twice in Bahrain on Sunday, according to the Gulf nation’s interior ministry. The Guards said in a statement that the US strikes had violated the ceasefire and “will result in the complete halt of all diplomatic processes”, according to state-run Press TV. The IRGC navy command said American bases in the region “will experience hell in the coming days”. A US official, confirming the attacks on US facilities, told Reuters there were no reported US casualties or major damage to US sites in the Middle East but that the situation was still unfolding. Hours later, alarms sounded for a second time in Bahrain, with the authorities saying an Iranian attack damaged a residential building in Muharraq province, with no casualties reported. Bahrain urged the United Nations Security Council to hold an