The United States said on Sunday that it had attacked military targets in southern Iran over the weekend, the latest in a series of attacks over the past week.<\/p>\n
Less than an hour later, Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said that its forces had targeted a military base from which it said an American attack on a communications facility in southern Iran had originated.<\/p>\n
United States Central Command said that overnight Monday, the U.S. military had \u201cintercepted two Iranian ballistic missiles targeting American forces based in Kuwait.\u201d It said that no U.S. personnel had been harmed. The Kuwaiti authorities had earlier accused Iran of launching a wave of attacks against its territory, without confirming whether a U.S. base had been targeted.<\/p>\n
The exchanges may further complicate U.S.-Iranian negotiations over a potential framework for a deal to end the war.<\/p>\n
The latest U.S. strikes on Iran\u2019s Persian Gulf coast targeted radar and command and control sites for drones in the city of Goruk and the Island of Qeshm, U.S. Central Command said in a statement<\/a> late Sunday.<\/p>\n Central Command said that the U.S. strikes on Saturday and Sunday were a response to what it described as \u201caggressive Iranian actions,\u201d including the shooting down of a remotely piloted American military drone that had been operating over international waters.<\/p>\n The Revolutionary Guards said in a statement early Monday that Iran had targeted a military base, the country\u2019s state news agency reported. The statement described the move as a retaliation for an American strike on a communications tower on an island in the south.<\/p>\n The statement, which did not identify the base, said that Iran would respond differently if such attacks were repeated.<\/p>\n The U.S. strike appeared to be the third round of American attacks in southern Iran in the past week. Iran has retaliated by targeting bases where it said some of the strikes originated.<\/p>\n Last Monday, the United States struck missile launch sites and Iranian boats trying to emplace mines, Capt. Tim Hawkins, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said at the time.<\/p>\n Those strikes came after U.S. intelligence analysts detected a series of potentially threatening Iranian military actions in the 24 hours leading up to the operation, two U.S. officials told The New York Times<\/a>, speaking anonymously to discuss operational matters.<\/p>\n On Wednesday, the United States shot down four one-way attack drones. A U.S. official, speaking anonymously, said Iran launched the drones<\/a> over the Strait of Hormuz, threatening U.S. forces in the region and the limited commercial maritime shipping still transiting the waterway, which Iran has effectively blockaded.<\/p>\n The military then carried out airstrikes against a drone ground-control station in the southern port city of Bandar Abbas before it could fire a fifth drone, the official said.<\/p>\n