Iran fires missiles and drones at Gulf allies on September 2, retaliating for U.S. strikes

Iran fired missiles and drones at U.S. bases in Jordan and at allies Kuwait and Bahrain early on September 2, 2026, according to NPR reporting. The strikes followed American bombardment of Iranian military targets over the preceding weekend, breaking a monthlong lull in a six-month conflict.

The renewed fighting carries immediate economic and political weight: Brent crude oil, the international standard, has climbed to around $95 per barrel since fighting resumed, up more than 30% from the start of the war, according to NPR's reporting. The six-month war has roiled the global economy and posed mounting political problems for U.S. President Donald Trump's Republican Party ahead of November midterm elections, NPR reports.

The U.S. Central Command said Tuesday's strikes focused on Iranian military targets, including air defense sites, radar systems, and maritime assets. The American military hit Iranian rocket launchers on an island in the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend, saying Iran was planning to use them to shoot mines into the waterway, according to NPR.

Iran retaliated by firing missiles at American bases in Jordan that were intercepted, per NPR reporting. Following those strikes, Kuwait and Bahrain said they had also come under attack, without reporting casualties. In Iraq, Kurdish authorities said they had intercepted 10 drones laden with explosives in the Irbil area, according to NPR. Israeli military said Iran-backed Hezbollah fired two explosive drones at soldiers in southern Lebanon, without causing casualties, per NPR reporting.

One U.S. strike hit a home hosting a wedding in Kuhestak, a small coastal town overlooking the Strait of Hormuz, according to Iranian media reported by NPR. Four people were killed, two women and two children, aged 4 and 16, and at least 68 were wounded, according to the state news agency IRNA and state TV, per NPR reporting. An Iranian provincial deputy governor initially told state television that five people were killed; no explanation for the change was reported. Two weapons experts told The Associated Press that fragments of a missile used in the strike were from a U.S.-made SLAM-ER cruise missile, according to NPR. The SLAM-ER is a precision weapon that can be retargeted in flight by a human operator watching by infrared camera, conflict researcher Trevor Ball of Bellingcat told NPR. The air-launched missile is also used by the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, neither of which has reported carrying out recent strikes on Iran, according to Armament Research Services director N.R. Jenzen-Jones, quoted by NPR.

U.S. Central Command spokesman Capt. Tim Hawkins stated the military was aware of reports of civilian casualties, which originated from Iranian state media, and was looking into them, according to NPR. Hawkins would not say if CENTCOM had launched a formal investigation.

Mohsen Rezaei, recently appointed head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, stated on X: "You will soon see that Iran's new strategy on the battlefield, in diplomacy, and in confronting the economic blockade will shatter your foundations." Ebrahim Azizi, chairperson of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said on X: "Make no mistake: these crimes will not go unpunished."

Iran's currency hit another record low on September 2, with traders in Tehran exchanging 2.20 million rials for one U.S. dollar, a 10% hike from the prior week's record, according to NPR. Iran has said four members of its Revolutionary Guard and 10 members of the Guard's volunteer Basij forces died in U.S. attacks, per NPR reporting.

U.S. Central Command's Adm. Brad Cooper said the Strait of Hormuz had been secretly cleared of mines and that the U.S. Navy had helped nearly 1,500 commercial vessels carrying some 750 million barrels of oil pass through in recent months, still far below prewar levels, according to NPR. The price of oil was around $80 a barrel before the latest flare-up, per NPR reporting.

Hamidreza Azizi, senior Iran analyst at the Crisis Group, told NPR: "At some point, one of the sides may see a need to escalate in order to break this cycle. So that could bring the two sides to a point that they have been trying to avoid until now, which is a full-scale war."