Iran attacks Kuwait and Saudi facilities after US strikes, oil prices rise

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it hit a U.S. military support centre at Camp Arifjan and a radar facility at Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait on Saturday, part of a series of attacks launched after seven consecutive nights of U.S. strikes on Iranian military targets. The strikes also damaged a desalination plant and an oil facility in Kuwait, injuring firefighters and oil-sector workers, according to the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation and the country's armed forces.

The IRGC warned that, in the absence of an international body to curb U.S. actions, it would respond in kind, citing a Quranic command to retaliate against attacks. > "Since there is no international institution to prevent the savagery of the U.S. military, we have no path before us except the Quranic command: ‘Whoever attacks you, attack them in the same manner'," the IRGC statement read.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed concern over the escalation, particularly the targeting of civilian infrastructure across the region. > "Attacks on civilian infrastructure in Iran and across the region are deeply troubling," his spokesperson said.

In Saudi Arabia, early-warning systems were triggered in Al-Kharj, east of Riyadh, and in Yanbu on the Red Sea coast, with reports that the Prince Sultan Air Base, which hosts U.S. forces, was targeted. Saudi state media did not provide further details.

The conflict has pushed global oil prices up more than 4% to a one-month high, adding pressure on U.S. policymakers as the situation escalates and both sides continue to contest shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.