Air raid sirens in Bahrain as Iranian missiles and drones head for Gulf
neighbors
[June 06, 2026]
By SAMY MAGDY and MICHELLE L. PRICE
CAIRO (AP) — Bahrain's government said Saturday that Iran fired
ballistic missiles and drones towards it and Kuwait. The foreign
ministry said they had been intercepted and called on Iran to
immediately cease attacks on its Gulf neighbors.
The statement came hours after the U.S. military said it shot down
Iranian ballistic missiles and drones launched toward the Strait of
Hormuz and Gulf Arab allies on Friday, while striking some of the
Islamic Republic’s coastal surveillance radar sites in response, an
exchange of fire that further frayed a shaky ceasefire with Tehran.
The exchange of strikes comes as the Trump administration ramps up
pressure on Iran to make a deal to end the conflict.
U.S. Central Command said on social media Friday night that Iran fired
seven ballistic missiles toward Kuwait and Bahrain, with U.S. forces
intercepting six of the missiles and a seventh failing to reach its
target. The military said there were no reports of harm to U.S.
personnel.
The ballistic missiles were fired after the U.S. earlier in the day shot
down four Iranian drones that were launched toward the Strait of Hormuz.
“The attack drones posed an immediate threat to regional maritime
traffic,” U.S. Central Command said on social media.
Kuwait’s military said forces were intercepting missiles and drones
attacking the country, while Bahrain activated air raid sirens and told
residents to move to the nearest safe location and follow official
instructions.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said it targeted the Ali Al Salem airbase,
which hosts U.S. forces in Kuwait, and the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet in the
tiny Gulf island nation of Bahrain, according to the state-run IRNA news
agency.
The U.S. military is enforcing a blockade on Iranian ports in response
to Tehran’s chokehold on the crucial corridor for global oil and natural
gas shipments, which has sent energy prices spiking and posed political
problems for President Donald Trump's Republican Party ahead of the
midterm congressional elections.
U.S. Central Command said it hit the radar sites, including an island in
the strait, “to defend against further attacks.”
Trump promises a quick end to US-Iran conflict
It was the latest in back-and-forth attacks that have strained the
tenuous ceasefire in the war and efforts to reach a deal to extend that
truce. Earlier this week, Iranian drones heavily damaged a passenger
terminal at Kuwait’s main airport, killing one person, wounding dozens
and briefly closing the airfield.
Despite the attacks raising new concerns that the ceasefire could
collapse, Trump told reporters Friday that “the situation with Iran
seems to be going quite well.”
“We’re going to come out of Iran very quickly and it’s going to be very
strong one way or the other, whether it’s a piece of paper or the very
tough way,” Trump said at an event with farmers in Wisconsin. “The very
tough way is maybe the easier way, but we’re going to come out, and your
fertilizer prices are going to go way down, just like they were four
months ago.”
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President Donald Trump arrives to speak to reporters aboard Air
Force One en route from Joint Base Andrews, Md., to Eau Claire,
Wis., Friday, June 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Trump increasingly appears to be boxed in on a conflict that has
settled into a holding pattern. U.S. and Iranian negotiators reached
a tentative agreement a week ago to extend the ceasefire by 60 days
and start a new round of talks on Iran’s nuclear program. But Trump
has called for unspecified changes and Iranian officials have shown
no public signs of signing off on the deal.
Asked on Friday why it was taking so long, Trump told NBC’s “Meet
the Press” it was because “it’s a very hard thing for them.”
“There are things they never thought they’d be doing that they’re
going to have to do. They’ve got no choice, and it takes a little
while,” he said in the interview.
Trump said the Iranians still have 21% to 22% of their missiles.
Israeli strikes on Lebanon continue
His administration also has touted the latest ceasefire agreed to
this week by the Lebanese government and Israel after U.S.-brokered
talks in Washington. However, the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant
group has rejected the agreement and new attacks have put it at
further risk.
The Israeli military on Friday struck multiple parts of southern
Lebanon and issued evacuation warnings for nine villages, including
one that has sheltered thousands of people displaced by the
fighting. The strikes killed nine people in six locations in
southern Lebanon, the state news agency reported.
The Israeli military said two soldiers were wounded, one severely,
in an encounter Friday with militants in southern Lebanon.
The fighting in Lebanon, where Israeli forces have seized large
swaths of the south, also threatens efforts to end the Iran war and
reopen the Strait of Hormuz because Iran has demanded that any
lasting truce extend to Lebanon.
Besides the drone interception in the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S.
military said earlier Friday that its forces boarded a sanctioned
oil tanker linked to Iran in the Indian Ocean as the United States
seeks to prevent Iran from profiting off its oil and other goods.
The U.S. also targeted Iran’s energy sector with new sanctions on a
group of people, firms and tankers.
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Price reported from Bridgewater, NJ.
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