Explosions reported near Bandar Abbas and Qeshm Island in Iran

Explosions were heard near Bandar Abbas and Qeshm Island after missile launches toward Qeshm Island. There were no casualties. In Kuwait, the army’s air defenses were engaging hostile missile and drone attacks, and the blasts heard there were the result of interceptions.

Qeshm is the Gulf’s largest island, about 1,500 square kilometers, and sits roughly 22 kilometers south of Bandar Abbas. Bandar Abbas faces the Strait of Hormuz directly and remains a strategic port and naval center, while Qeshm is linked to missile infrastructure and Iran’s wider maritime defense posture near the entrance to one of the world’s most sensitive shipping lanes.

Kuwait has a 1991 defense cooperation agreement with Washington, and roughly 13,500 U.S. forces are based there, mainly at Camp Arifjan and Ali al-Salem Air Base. Bahrain hosts the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet, and Washington and Manama signed the Comprehensive Security Integration and Prosperity Agreement in 2023, widening defense and security cooperation.

If missiles or drones keep hitting Kuwait, or if fighting around Bandar Abbas threatens shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, the United States would face pressure first to protect its forces, then to shield the waterway, and then to act through its Gulf partnerships. The U.S. and Gulf partners, including Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, have also moved together on a draft U.N. resolution to defend freedom of navigation in the strait, whose traffic carries about 20% of global petroleum liquids consumption and about 20% of global LNG trade.