Late on the night of June 2 local time, US military forces attacked an Iranian oil tanker navigating the waters of the Strait of Hormuz, damaging the vessel’s engine compartment and sparking fresh armed friction between the two sides. In immediate retaliation, the naval branch of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched missile strikes and sank the Panaya, a vessel linked to US and Israeli interests. Soon afterward, US warplanes carried out an airstrike targeting an IRGC communication tower in southern Qeshm Island of Iran, further inflaming regional conflicts.

In response to successive US military provocations, the Aerospace Force of the IRGC launched coordinated missile and drone assaults in the early hours of June 3 against the headquarters of the US Fifth Fleet stationed in Bahrain as well as a US air and helicopter base in the Middle East. During the attacks, air defense sirens blared continuously at US military installations across Bahrain and Kuwait amid intensive interception fire, while residents on Qeshm Island reported three loud explosions originating from the island’s southern area before dawn.

Due to the sudden military flare-up, all airports in Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait suspended all flight operations indefinitely. Iran issued a stern warning that any actions jeopardizing navigational security of the Strait of Hormuz would incur severe consequences for the perpetrators. In contrast, US Central Command later released an official statement denying any damage to the Fifth Fleet headquarters and claiming all Iranian strikes had been intercepted and neutralized by US and allied air defense systems. The contradictory statements from Washington and Tehran have sharply escalated geopolitical tensions across the Middle East.