WASHINGTON — American forces headed off Iranian missile and drone attacks in the Persian Gulf as the war that began nearly 100 days ago continued to simmer with no resolution in the offing.

Six ballistic missiles fired at Bahrain and Kuwait “were intercepted and a seventh did not reach its intended target,” U.S. Central Command said in a statement on X late Friday.

Four Iranian attack drones headed toward the Strait of Hormuz, which has been largely closed off since the war began on Feb. 28, were also shot down, CentCom said. It added that U.S. armed forces “subsequently struck Iranian coastal surveillance radar sites in Goruk and on Qeshm Island to defend against further attacks.”

The Kuwaiti military said “air defenses are currently repelling hostile drone and missile assaults,” according to a post on X by the Kuwait News Agency, and sounds of blasts are “national air defenses systems interception of the incoming hostile attacks.” Bahrain’s Ministry of Interior advised residents to remain calm and head to their nearest safe location.

In an interview with NBC News on Friday, President Donald Trump conceded Iran had some missile and drone capacity, despite moments earlier saying the U.S. had “totally destroyed” the country’s military capabilities and that it was “virtually decapitated.”

He said Iran still had about 21-22% of its missile arsenal remaining.

“It’s a lot of missiles, but it’s not what it was when we first attacked,” he told the television network during a visit to Wisconsin.

The president has insisted for months that Iran was near its breaking point. Earlier Friday, he told reporters the U.S. is “having great success with Iran,” and “they’re in no position to have a nuclear weapon.”

Iran has demanded a ceasefire in Lebanon — where Israeli troops and the Hezbollah militia have been battling — before an accord can be reached with the U.S. A military adviser to Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei told CNN that “the ball is in Trump’s court” when it comes to a deal, insisting on the unfreezing of $24 billion in assets.

Hezbollah earlier this week rejected a U.S.-brokered ceasefire that had been announced by the State Department just hours before.

The attacks by Iran on other Persian Gulf nations has heightened anxieties across the region. The image of that part of the Middle East as a haven for international business and tourism was abruptly shattered when the beleaguered Tehran regime lashed out at its neighbors shortly after the war began, and the region’s leaders fear they will be dragged into a fresh bout of open warfare.

Trump on Friday again downplayed the higher cost of oil, which has pushed up gasoline prices since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28. “People thought it was going to be a lot worse,” he told reporters. “Today I looked at $96 a barrel, people thought that was going to be $300 a barrel.”

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Friday there had been “no tangible progress” in talks even though the two sides continued to exchange messages via mediators. No commercial transits through the Strait of Hormuz were observed on Friday morning, with three passages in each direction seen Thursday, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.

Without a breakthrough, the continuing standoff suggests Iranian leaders believe they can hold out, gambling that the disapproval of the war that pollsters record among American voters — just months before elections that will decide control of Congress — will force Trump to abandon some of his objectives.

(John Harney and Derek Wallbank contributed to this report.)

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