TEHRAN/KUWAIT CITY, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) — At least 19 people, including military personnel and civilians, were killed in overnight U.S. strikes across several provinces in Iran, as the country’s armed forces retaliated by attacking U.S. bases and assets in the region, Iranian media reported Wednesday.
The U.S. attacks on Iran’s southwestern Khuzestan province killed seven people and wounded eight others, the semi-official Mehr news agency cited Valiollah Hayati, Khuzestan’s deputy governor for security and law enforcement affairs, as saying.
The report said U.S. strikes on southern Lavan Island killed three members of the Basij volunteer force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC), while four members of the IRGC’s Aerospace division were killed in strikes on the western province of Kermanshah.
A commando, identified as Malek Mousavi-Tabar, was killed Wednesday morning during operations to counter the movements of an invading drone in Bahmai County in the western Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province, it added.
It also cited provincial authorities as saying that four people were killed and 68 others wounded in a U.S. attack targeting a wedding ceremony in Sirik County in southern Hormozgan province. The victims included one four-year-old child, a teenager and two women.
In a post on social media platform X earlier in the day, U.S. Central Command said its forces had “successfully completed a wave of strikes against Iranian military targets,” citing “recent attempted attacks by the IRGC against commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and against American service members.”
In retaliation for the U.S. strikes, Iran’s IRGC and army announced that they targeted U.S. bases and assets in Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
In statements published on its official news outlet Sepah News, the IRGC said its forces shot down a “hostile” U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone and launched ballistic missiles toward Camp Titin in Jordan, reportedly killing “a large number of” U.S. troops and destroying several key facilities and combat helicopters.
The IRGC said its aerospace forces struck with ballistic missiles the hangars of U.S. RQ-4 Global Hawk and MQ-9 Reaper drones at the Prince Hassan Air Base in Jordan, destroying a number of the aircraft and setting the technical infrastructure facilities on fire.
It noted that its ground forces targeted with drones and missiles the headquarters and accommodation of the U.S. commander at the Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait, setting on fire a hangar of U.S. drones and a drone deployment ramp and destroying several unmanned aerial vehicles.
Its ground forces also launched a hybrid missile-drone strike on U.S. bases in Erbil, capital of Iraq’s Kurdistan region, destroying a maintenance center, technical-equipment warehouses, and a system for guiding espionage balloons, all belonging to the U.S. Army, the IRGC added.
In statements published on its website, Iran’s Army said its drone attacks targeted U.S. bases in Bahrain and the UAE.
It said it struck with kamikaze drones U.S. troops and radar facilities at the Shaikh Isa Air Base in Bahrain as well as the Al Minhad and Al Dhafra Air Bases in the UAE.
In a statement carried by Iranian media earlier in the day, Iran’s main military command, Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, warned that continued U.S. “malicious” acts in the region would draw “heavier, more extensive and more devastating” responses.
Meanwhile, in a statement on its official X account, the Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry condemned the Iranian attacks, calling them a “blatant violation of its sovereignty” and reiterating its full right to take necessary measures to “protect its security and interests.”
