RIYADH: Iran hit Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan with retaliatory strikes on Thursday as the United states launched new assault across multiple Iranian cities, after President Donald Trump warned that Tehran would “pay the price” for stalled negotiations

Kuwait said it was dealing with aerial threats and Bahrain activated air raid sirens early Thursday after a night of clashes between the US and Iran threatened to reignite the Middle East war.

The Kuwaiti army said, in a post on social media, that “air defense systems are currently intercepting hostile aerial targets.”

The Gulf nation also shut its airspace for a temporary period and diverted flights due to the attacks.

Bahraini authorities set off sirens and told the public to shelter in a safe place.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Thursday it had fired ballistic missiles at a US command center in Jordan, according to state media.

This “punitive operation against the aggressor” targeted “Al-Azraq Air Base and its control center, using 12 ballistic missiles,” the Guards said, as quoted by the Tasnim news agency, claiming to have destroyed these facilities “and a large number of fighter aircraft.”

It was the third time this week that back-and-forth strikes have tested a two-month shaky ceasefire. On Monday, Iran and Israel targeted each other. US hit Iranian sites in retaliation for the downing of an American helicopter on Wednesday. Tehran struck back and targeted US assets Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain.

US President Donald Trump vowed on Wednesday to hit Iran “very hard” if a peace deal was not agreed, and at 12:15 a.m. Riyadh time, US forces attacked several locations inside Iran.

Tehran said it had responded against US forces in the Strait of Hormuz, but the US military denied the claim.

Iran said that the strait was now closed and any vessel transiting the waterway would be attacked.

Negotiations to end the conflict continues with the help of mediators, but Trump’s repeated claims that a deal is imminent has yet to materialize.

Israel and the US launched the war against Iran on Feb. 28. and a deal to cease the fighting has largely held for two months.

– with AFP