Iran's Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei. Photo: AFP / Seyed

Kuwait and Bahrain’s militaries said on Sunday they were responding to Iranian aerial attacks, and air raid sirens sounded in the two Gulf countries as Tehran pressed its retaliatory strikes across the region.

“Kuwaiti air defences are currently confronting hostile missile and drone attacks, following the sinful Iranian aggression,” the army said in a statement, as an AFP journalist reported warning sirens sounding in Kuwait City.

In the island kingdom of Bahrain, host of the US Fifth Fleet, the military said its air defences “confronted, intercepted, and destroyed a number of treacherous Iranian aerial attacks.”

An AFP journalist said blasts could be heard in the north of Bahrain after another AFP reporter said a warning siren rang out across the capital Manama.