Iran war LIVE: Kuwait, Bahrain and Iraq come under attack as US air bases targeted
The US Central Command issued a statement on the Iranian attacks:
U.S. forces successfully defeated multiple Iranian ballistic missiles and drones, and conducted self-defense strikes on Qeshm Island in response to attempted attacks by Iran across the Middle East, June 2. Iran launched several ballistic missiles toward regional neighbors; however, all failed to hit their intended targets. Two Iranian missiles fired at Kuwait fell short or broke apart enroute, and three missiles launched at Bahrain were immediately intercepted by U.S. and Bahrain air defense forces. Moments earlier, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces shot down three one-way attack drones launched by Iran toward civilian mariners that were rightfully transiting regional waters. American forces also conducted self-defense strikes on an Iranian military ground control station on Qeshm Island. No U.S. personnel were harmed. CENTCOM forces remain vigilant and ready to defend against unwarranted Iranian aggression during the ongoing ceasefire.
Kuwait has come under intense missile attack from Iran as the Middle East edges ever closer to full-scale conflict.
The Kuwaiti military wrote in a post on X early on Wednesday, May 3: "Kuwaiti air defenses are currently repelling missile and drone attacks."
"The General Staff of the Army notes that if explosion sounds are heard, they are the result of air defense systems intercepting the hostile attacks."
"Everyone is asked to comply with the security and safety instructions issued by the relevant authorities."
Iranian state media has reported that the missiles are targeting US Camp Arifjan and Ali al-Salem airbase near Kuwait City.
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The US military has stopped a seventh ship trying to run its blockade of Iranian ports on Tuesday, said US Central Command.
The Botswana-flagged merchant vessel M/T Lexie was stopped by a US aircraft firing a Hellfire missile into its engine room after the crew ignored repeated warnings over 24 hours.
The halting of the Lexie comes just days after US forces halted another merchant vessel, the Lian Star, using a similar approach.
This latest halt brings the total of commercial ships disabled by US forces to six because one stopped vessel was ultimately allowed to continue on its way. Another 122 ships have been redirected, the military said.
Marco Rubio says Iran has Chinese military equipment from their previous ties, but the US has seen no indication that anything provided has “changed the dynamic in the battlefield.”
The remarks came several weeks after the State Department sanctioned three China-based entities for providing satellite imagery that enabled Iran’s military strikes against US forces in the Middle East.
The Trump administration alleged one company collected satellite imagery of US and allied military facilities to aid Iran. Another company provided satellite imagery to Iran during the military operation and the third published open-source images detailing US military activity.
Marco Rubio said that the US has a plan for Gaza, Israel seizing 70% of Gaza was not part of it.
The Secretary of State was testifying for the second time today before lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
He was pressed on where the US stands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s goal of seizing 70% of Gaza to defeat the Hamas militant group.
Rubio said Netanyahu’s statement was not part of President Trump’s 20-point plan to end the conflict between Israel and Hamas. The plan would end Hamas’ rule and rebuild the territory.
“We have a plan — it doesn’t call for that,” Rubio said. “And at the end of the day, we understand that what we want, and I think what the Israelis would ultimately want, is a Gaza that is governed by a non-Hamas entity."
Trump denies that Iran has cut off communication with mediators, calling Iranian reports of a cessation in talks “false and erroneous.”
He said on Truth Social: “The conversations between us have been going on continuously, including four days ago, three days ago, two days ago, one day ago, and today.”
He continued: “Where they lead, one never knows, but as I told Iran, ‘It’s time, one way or another, for you to make a Deal. You’ve been doing this for 47 years, and it cannot be allowed to go on any longer!’”
Fars and Tasnim, two semiofficial Iranian news agencies, reported earlier Tuesday that Iran had stopped communicating with mediators about extending a ceasefire in the war with the US and Israel.
Trump denies that Iran has called off talks(Image: Samuel Corum - Pool via CNP/Shutterstock)
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is offering the United Arab Emirates technical as well as moral support, IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said on Tuesday after a visit to the site of a nuclear power plant that came under a drone attack last month.
Grossi said Emirati authorities had reacted very quickly to the attack at the Barakah Nuclear Power Plant by shutting down a reactor because of the loss of external power.
He said a number of activities would take place to complete repairs at the plant but provided no further details.
A British couple jailed on spying charges in Iran have lost an appeal against their convictions, their family has said.
Craig and Lindsay Foreman were handed a 10-year prison sentence in February after being convicted of espionage, which they both deny.
The pair’s family have claimed they were not permitted to attend their appeal hearing.
They were jailed following their arrest in January 2025 while travelling through Iran during an around-the-world trip by motorcycle.
Ms Foreman’s son Joe Bennett said “the dial needs to shift” as he explained that the pair “don’t understand the process”.
In a post on Truth Social yesterday Donald Trump claimed to have had a “very good call with Hezbollah”. When questioned about Trump’s conversation with the terrorist group, Marco Rubio explained to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that communications took place via the Lebanese government.
"We received communications via the Lebanese government and the speaker over there, on behalf of Hezbollah, as early as Sunday that they would restrain from attacking Israeli territory if Israel did not carry out new strikes in Beirut," Rubio said.
"So it came from Hezbollah, but through Lebanese authorities."
“We can't live in a world in which they get to close the straits and tell everybody, 'pay us a toll’," Marco Rubio said in defence of the US naval blockade of Iran.
The move came in response to Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz, Rubio said. "They're firing on commercial ships, and they've mined large segments of Hormuz international waters. And so the blockade is only against Iranian ships," he added.
"The notion is if no ships are going to get out, then Iran's ships aren't going to get out either."
Tehran must reopen the strait as part of any peace deal, he said, adding: “If they refuse to do so, then we have other options available to us."
Secretary of State Marco Rubio says he thinks Iran's supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei is alive.
Answering questions from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Rubio said that, despite widespread reports that Khamenei was badly injured in the strikes which killed his father (the previous supreme leader) at the outbreak of the war - Mojtaba was still active.
"I would imagine, given what's happened to multiple leaders in that system, being very public is probably not something that's recommended for them internally," he says.
"But that said, I think there are indications that he is increasingly engaging at some level, although all of his communications have been in writing and through intermediaries."
(Image: NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Rubio has defended US military operations in Iran as he faced questions from lawmakers today, branding the sprawling conflict as “highly successful”.
“Operation Epic Fury – some of you didn’t like it, some of you did – was highly successful in achieving its military objectives, which was dramatically reducing the defence-industrial base of Iran,” he told House and Senate committees today.
“Today, there is no Iranian navy. There is no such thing,” he added. “It lies at the bottom of the ocean.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is sitting before House and Senate committees facing questions about the US-Israel war on Iran from lawmakers for the first time since it began.
Discussing the ongoing attempts to secure peace talks, Rubio said negotiations with Iran may include “aspects of their nuclear programme that just a month ago, just a year ago, they were refusing to even mention”.
“That is not a guarantee it will ultimately lead to a deal that’s acceptable,” he added.
European leaders have spoken out following Israel’s latest strikes in southern Lebanon.
Germany's chancellor has urged Israel to exercise restraint and said the country viewed the escalating strikes in southern Lebanon with great concern and called on Hezbollah to lay down its arms.
Meanwhile Spain’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement that “strongly condemns the resurgence of violence in southern Lebanon, with the expansion of Israeli military operations and attacks by Hezbollah, and calls on the parties to fully respect the ceasefire of 16 April.”
In a post on X, Israel's foreign ministry accused Hezbollah of violating the ceasefire "despite renewed declarations" yesterday.
Hezbollah destroyed three Israeli Merkava tanks in the past 24 hours, according to Iran's state Fars news agency.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency has said: "The fourth round of Lebanese-Israeli negotiations began a short while ago at the US State Department headquarters in Washington, after the arrival of the participating delegations.”
This is the fourth round of direct talks between Israel and Lebanon since the start of the conflict.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry has updated the number of people wounded in Tyre to 127 – including 39 health workers – following an Israeli air attack near Jabal Amel Hospital yesterday. At least four people were killed in the attack, the government body said.
In an update yesterday the health ministry reported there had been 13,828 casualties since the start of the recent conflict with Israeli forces on March 2, with 3,433 people killed. The ministry said that 17 hospitals had been damaged and three closed with 128 health care workers killed over the period.
The Iranian semi-official Mehr news agency has said the draft text of a potential memorandum of understanding with the United States and Iran is still being considered.
Iran has not yet sent a response, the news agency said, citing an informed source close to the negotiating team.
Israeli drone strikes in southern Lebanon on Tuesday killed eight people, including a father and his son and daughter, a day after US President Donald Trump said Israel and Hezbollah agreed to dial back fighting.
Israel threatened on Monday to strike Beirut’s southern suburbs, causing panic in the Lebanese capital as thousands fled to safer areas and Hezbollah fired rockets at northern Israel.
Israeli forces recently made their deepest incursion into Lebanon in 26 years, but Beirut has been mostly spared over the past six weeks, apart from two targeted attacks on the city’s southern suburbs in May.
Jabal Amel Hospital, the largest hospital in the city of Tyre, is in ruins after Israeli airstrikes on the southern Lebanese port city yesterday.
Images show heavy damage to hospital buildings and equipment following the strikes on Monday. The images come as Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said today military operations in southern Lebanon will continue under all circumstances.
A nurse looks through a shattered window of the Jabal Amel Hospital(Image: AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
Damage in Jabal Amel Hospital a day after an Israeli air strike(Image: WAEL HAMZEH/EPA/Shutterstock)
Buildings opposite Jabal Amel Hospital, the largest hospital in the city of Tyre(Image: Anadolu via Getty Images)
Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister has said the UN Security Council must “move beyond the stage of expressing concern” and “adopt punitive and binding decisions” against Israel.
Kazem Gharibabadi said the current war in the Middle East is “the product of the crimes and impunity of the Zionist regime, which violates the sovereignty of governments, renders ceasefires meaningless, and desecrates the sanctities of the Palestinians”.
“International law is not upheld through low-cost and ineffective condemnations,” he added.
“In this regard, the US president’s claim of having dissuaded Netanyahu from launching a major attack on Beirut is more than a sign of Washington’s peace-seeking, it’s confirmation of America’s direct role in managing the Zionist regime’s aggressions,” he added in a post on X.
“If the decision to attack the capital of an independent state can be changed with a single phone call the main question is: why did months of ceasefire violations, aggression against Lebanon, the displacement of its people, and threats to this country’s sovereignty – backed by Western political and military support – continue unabated?”
The IDF has warned residents in Nabatiyeh, southern Lebanon, to leave the area before it is targeted with strikes.
The military's Arabic-language spokesman, Colonel Avichay Adraee, posted on social media: "In light of the Hezbollah terrorist organisation’s violation of the ceasefire agreement, the IDF is compelled to act against it with force.
"For your safety, you must evacuate your homes immediately and move north of the Zahrani River."
Earlier, Lebanon's civil defence agency said an Israeli attack had killed six people in Marwaniyeh, southern Lebanon, yesterday evening.
The IDF's warning comes after Trump reportedly lashed out at Benjamin Netanyahu as he demanded Israel call off strikes on Lebanon.
Hospital staff look at the damage caused by an Israeli strike that hit near the hospital in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre on June 1, 2026(Image: Getty Images)
The IRGC has warned it is "fully prepared for all possible scenarios" and would resume military operations with different operations, battlefield geography, and weaponry than in previous fighting.
"Should the enemy return to the military field, the type of operations, the geography of the battlefield, and even the type of weapons used will be different, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps is fully prepared for all possible scenarios," an IRGC spokesman said.
A UN security council meeting, requested by France, was held yesterday after Israel announced it was going to attack Beirut’s southern suburbs.
The harshest criticisms came from France, Britain, Russia and China, while the US blamed Hezbollah and Iran.
“Israel’s presence north of the Blue Line is a clear violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” said Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee, a senior UN official addressing the Council, referencing the demarcation line dividing Israel from Lebanon and the Golan Heights. “These hostilities are reverberating across the region.”
James Kariuki, Britain’s deputy ambassador, said: “This reckless and disproportionate escalation of Israeli military action exacerbates an already devastating environment for Lebanese civilians and places the government of Lebanon under further strain.”
France's foreign minister said nothing could justify Israeli troops remaining deep inside Lebanon.
Jean-Noel Barrot told France TV this morning: "Nothing can justify the continuation of military operations and Israel’s prolonged occupation deep inside Lebanese territory."
Israel and Hezbollah clashed overnight despite a US announcement that both sides had agreed to halt fighting.
Jean-Noel Barrot has hit out at Israel(Image: Abdullah Firas/ABACA/Shutterstock)
Tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox demonstrated across Israel on Monday, blocking roads and trains and setting cars on fire to protest mandatory enlistment in Israel's military.
Highways were closed and public transportation stopped by crowds in both Jerusalem and the Tel Aviv metro area.
Military service is compulsory for most Jewish men and women in Israel, but ultra-Orthodox parties have won exemptions for their followers to study in religious seminaries instead of participating in military service.
Many Israelis are tired of the longstanding system that has allowed ultra-Orthodox men to skip military service at a time when the military is stretched to its breaking point and many have served multiple tours of reserve duty.
The issue is tearing apart Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's governing coalition, possibly moving elections up by several weeks this fall after the ultra-Orthodox parties withdrew their support for Netanyahu, AP reported.
Lebanon said an Israeli strike hit near a hospital in the southern city of Tyre on June 1.
Heavy damage was caused to the facility.
Hospital staff look at the damage caused by an Israeli strike that hit near the hospital in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre on June 1, 2026(Image: Getty Images)
US President Donald Trump has reportedly lashed out at one of his closest allies.
Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a phone call on Monday, during which Trump fumed over the conflict in Lebanon.
A US official told the Axios that Trump said:
"You're f***ing crazy. You'd be in prison if it weren't for me."
"I'm saving your a**. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this."
Hezbollah said in a statement that it had carried out 41 attacks on Israel throughout Monday.
The strikes were carried out in response to what it said was Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement and attacks on civilians in southern Lebanon.
US President Donald Trump has said he thinks he thinks an agreement with Iran to extend the ceasefire and reopen the Strait of Hormuz could happen "over the next week."
"There was a little glitch today, but I turned that one around very quickly, as you probably noticed earlier," Trump told ABC News on Monday.
He said the glitch was that the Iran was were about Israel's attacks on Lebanon.
"So, I spoke with Hezbollah, and I said no shooting, and I talked to Bibi [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu], and said, no shooting, and they both stopped shooting each other," Trump said.
An Israeli airstrike has killed at least four people in the town of Marwaniyeh, in southern Lebanon’s Sidon district, Al Jazeera reported.
A separate Israeli airstrike on the town of Bazouriyeh in the Tyre district also wounded three people, the Qatari broadcaster said.
Meanwhile Hezbollah says it targeted Israeli soldiers in the Israeli city of Ma’alot-Tarshiha and southern Lebanon’s Odaisseh.
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