Motorists drive their vehicles past a political billboard featuring U.S. President Donald Trump and the Strait of Hormuz along Valiasr Square in Tehran, May 26. AFP-Yonhap

DUBAI/WASHINGTON — Iran's Revolutionary Guard said on Thursday it targeted a U.S. airbase after the U.S. military carried out what a Washington official said were strikes targeting an Iranian drone operation near the Strait of Hormuz, hours after President Donald Trump rejected a report he was close to a compromise deal with Tehran.

The escalation in hostilities highlighted threats to the tenuous ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran that took effect in early April, dampening hopes for a peace deal and sending oil prices surging again. The U.S. official, who requested anonymity to speak candidly about military operations, told Reuters the military shot down four Iranian attack drones and struck a ground control station in the port city of Bandar Abbas that was about to launch a fifth drone.

"These actions were measured, purely defensive and intended to maintain the ceasefire," the official said. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it targeted a U.S. base in response to what it described as an early morning U.S. attack near Bandar Abbas airport, Tasnim news agency reported. The IRGC said they targeted the U.S. airbase from which the attack on the control station near Bandar Abbas was launched.

Kuwait — which hosts a large U.S. base — said it was responding to missile and drone attacks without saying where the attacks were coming from.

Israel, which has been fighting Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon, also reported sounding sirens regarding hostile aircraft activity in northern Israel.

Oil prices, having fallen more than 5 percent on Wednesday, rebounded after reports of the escalation in hostilities. U.S. crude futures gained more than 3 percent, while stocks fell and the dollar rose.

U.S. President Donald Trump, center, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, left, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth attend a cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room at the White House, in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 27. Reuters-Yonhap

Trump says no country to control strait

The war has killed thousands and sent global energy prices sharply higher since it began on February 28 with U.S. and Israeli strikes. Trump has repeatedly said that a deal is close at hand.

Source: Korea Times News