Iranian forces have struck a United States military radar installation in Bahrain in retaliation for an earlier American airstrike, marking the first direct hit on American assets in the region in months.

The attack heightens the risk of a full-scale conventional war between Washington and Tehran. Its significance lies in the direct targeting of an American military installation: the earlier US airstrike has now been followed by an Iranian strike on US regional assets.

That exchange increases the danger of further escalation, although it does not establish that a wider war will follow.