Washington, United States (AFP) — Tensions in the Middle East surged again Friday when the US military said it struck radar sites in Iran after downing drones headed toward the Hormuz Strait.

Shortly after, air raid sirens sounded in neighboring Gulf nations Kuwait and Bahrain — both US allies — and Agence France-Presse correspondents in both countries heard explosions.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said early Saturday they had targeted “enemy bases in the area” with missiles in response to a US “invasion” of the country’s Sirik and Qeshm islands.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) said Iran launched seven ballistic missiles toward Kuwait and Bahrain.

CENTCOM said six of the missiles were downed while the seventh “did not reach its intended target.”

“There are currently no reports of harm to US personnel, and Iranian claims of damaging US 5th fleet headquarters in Bahrain are false,” the command said in a statement.

The latest flare-up came despite the US moving ahead with allowing Iran’s national football team to travel to the FIFA World Cup it is co-hosting with Canada and Mexico.

US Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack confirmed the visa issuances, saying that “sports transcends borders, and we look forward to welcoming competitors and fans from around the world.”

However, Iran’s Fars news agency reported that visas had yet to be issued for some members of the team’s “technical and executive staff.”

An unnamed US administration official said in a statement: “We will not allow the Iranian team to abuse this system to sneak terrorists into the United States under false pretenses.”

The team is due to fly from Turkey to Spain on Saturday before traveling on to their base camp in Mexico, where they will arrive on Sunday.

Trading strikes

Earlier Friday, CENTCOM said its forces also downed four Iranian drones headed toward the Strait of Hormuz before striking Iranian coastal radar installations in Goruk and on Qeshm Island.

“The attack drones posed an immediate threat to regional maritime traffic,” while the strikes on radar installations “defend against further attacks,” CENTCOM said in a statement.

Iranian state television IRIB reported early Saturday, local time, that “several explosions were heard” in Sirik in southern Iran at around 2:30 a.m.

“Following the invasion of the child-killing and terrorist US army into Sirik and Qeshm Island, enemy bases in the region were hit by aerial missiles,” IRIB reported, quoting the Guards after the US strikes on Iran.

Kuwait’s military said early Saturday it was responding to “hostile” missile and drone attacks, days after a strike on the country’s international airport killed one and wounded dozens.

“Kuwaiti air defenses are currently responding to hostile missile and drone attacks,” the military said on X, without specifying their origin.

Bahrain’s foreign ministry on Saturday decried attacks by Iran against its territory and neighboring Kuwait.

“The ministry of foreign affairs strongly condemns the renewed attacks by the Islamic Republic of Iran against the Kingdom of Bahrain and the sisterly State of Kuwait,” Bahrain, which hosts the US Fifth Fleet, said in a statement.

“This blatant aggression constitutes a flagrant violation of the sovereignty of both countries,” it added.

Weeks of complex talks marked by threats and flare-ups of violence have failed to secure a deal to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a key conduit for global energy flows.

A ceasefire in the Middle East war, triggered nearly 100 days ago by US and Israeli strikes that wiped out Iran’s top leadership, has been in place since 8 April.