Iran launched coordinated attacks of missiles and drones on the American military stationed in Kuwait and Bahrain on Wednesday night. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced attacks on Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait as well as the headquarters of the U.S. Navy Fifth Fleet in Manama, Bahrain, according to reports from the Iranian state media and regional sources.
In Kuwait, air defense systems fired at incoming projectiles overnight, with reports of explosions near the Kuwait International Airport. In Bahrain, air-raid sirens went off across the capital Manama early Wednesday morning as American and other military forces defended against the attack. In a public advisory, the Bahraini Ministry of the Interior told residents to take cover and to follow information from official sources.
A statement released by the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said that the attacks were in response to the US military's attacks on Iranian soil. According to Iranian state media, a Shahed-136 kamikaze drone was used in the attack to strike the building housing the Fifth Fleet's command center at the US Navy facility in Manama. The attack also targeted US and regional forces' radar systems and command centers, reports claim. There has been no official assessment of damage caused by the attack by the US military.
The operation by Iran against U.S. interests overnight is part of an ongoing conflict across several countries in the Gulf region by both Washington and Tehran since the start of Operation Epic Fury in February. In subsequent days Iran had launched attacks against American interests in Jordan, Iraq, Qatar and the UAE but for the first time ever, on Wednesday night, missiles and drones were launched at military bases in Kuwait and at the Fifth Fleet HQ in Bahrain.
No US casualties were reported in the overnight attacks on American military targets in Bahrain. Kuwait, meanwhile, insisted it regards the presence of US troops on its soil to be outside of Iran's dispute with Washington. Kuwait and Bahrain both strongly condemned the overnight attacks by Iran.
CENTCOM launched a wave of strikes on IRGC targets on September 2. To date the conflict has failed to abate with trading of shots across the Gulf now routine. Peace initiatives and a host of ceasefire agreements have all since stalled while shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has plunged to a fraction of its pre-conflict levels with no signs of improvement forthcoming through diplomatic channels.
