Breaking: Iran Strikes US Bases in Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan
- Jul 13
- 3 min read
Iran launched one of its largest retaliatory attacks of the conflict early Monday, firing waves of missiles and drones at US military bases and naval assets across the Gulf. Air raid sirens sounded in Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan as the barrage came in, and Bahrain's Interior Ministry urged residents to take shelter and stay off main roads. The strikes mark a sharp escalation in a war that has centered on the Strait of Hormuz for the past week.
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed it hit 85 US military targets in the operation. Among the sites named were Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait, Salman Port and the Bahraini Fifth Naval Region, and the US air base at Sheikh Isa in Bahrain, where the IRGC said it struck helicopter maintenance facilities, a hangar housing a P-8 Poseidon surveillance aircraft, and a drone command and control center.
The IRGC also claimed it completely destroyed fuel storage tanks and Patriot air defense systems at Ali Al Salem. None of those battle damage claims have been independently verified, and US Central Command had not released a full assessment of the strikes or any casualty figures as of early Monday morning.
What is confirmed is the scale of the alert across the region. Sirens were activated in at least three countries, and residents in Bahrain were told to shelter for a second consecutive day. State-affiliated Iranian media described the operation as extensive missile and drone attacks against US bases and vessels, and outlets across the Gulf reported interceptions and explosions through the early morning hours.
The Iranian barrage came hours after the US military completed its own new wave of strikes against Iran. US Central Command said it hit dozens of targets across multiple locations on Sunday, including Iranian air-defense systems, coastal radar sites, missile and drone capabilities, and IRGC small boats operating around the Strait of Hormuz. The Pentagon said the goal was to degrade Iran's ability to threaten civilian mariners and commercial shipping transiting the waterway.
The tit-for-tat exchange is unfolding despite active diplomacy. Delegations from the United States and Iran entered negotiations last month aimed at a war-ending deal, built on a memorandum of understanding signed by both countries. But the two sides have continued to trade strikes even as the talks proceed, and each new round of attacks puts additional strain on the process.
Iran's Foreign Ministry condemned the latest American strikes as acts of aggression and warned that no action against Iran would go unanswered. President Trump, for his part, has insisted the Strait of Hormuz remains open, and US officials say the strikes on Iranian coastal sites are aimed at keeping it that way. Roughly a fifth of the world's oil passes through the strait, and shipping and energy markets have been on edge since the conflict began.
For US allies in the Gulf, the widening of the war is a growing concern. Bahrain hosts the US Navy's Fifth Fleet, Kuwait hosts thousands of American troops at Ali Al Salem, and Jordan hosts US forces as well. Strikes on those countries' soil, even ones aimed at American facilities, raise the risk that Gulf states get pulled more directly into the fighting.
What to watch in the hours ahead: an official US damage and casualty assessment from the bases that were hit, whether Washington responds with another round of strikes on Iranian territory, how oil prices and shipping insurance rates react when markets open, and whether the US-Iran negotiating track survives the escalation or breaks down entirely.
Bottom line: Iran has answered the latest American strikes with one of its broadest attacks on US positions in the Gulf to date, hitting or targeting bases in three countries and setting off sirens across the region. Both sides say they are still at the table, but the exchange of fire is accelerating, and the next 24 hours will show whether this remains a controlled tit-for-tat or tips into a wider regional war. This is a developing story.
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