Iran Hits US Facilities in Kuwait, Bahrain in Retaliation for American Airstrikes

IRGC says missile and drone operation struck 85 sites

Iran attacked Bahrain and Kuwait, home to US military bases, hours after the US said it had struck more than 80 military targets inside Iran in response to Iranian attacks on commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, said July 8 that it had struck US military facilities in Bahrain and Kuwait, according to AFP and other reports citing a state broadcast.

The IRGC said its navy and aerospace force carried out a joint missile and drone operation as an initial response to what it called aggression, hitting 85 major US military facilities in the two countries. It also claimed to have shot down a US MQ-9 drone.

Bahrain and Kuwait responded after coming under attack early that morning. Kuwait’s military said on X that its air defenses were responding to hostile missile and drone attacks, adding that the sound of explosions was coming from interception operations.

At about the same time, Bahrain’s Interior Ministry issued an air raid warning and urged citizens and residents on X to remain calm and move to the nearest safe place.

Earlier, the US said it had carried out precision strikes on more than 80 targets inside Iran, including air defense systems, command-and-control facilities, coastal radar bases, anti-ship missile forces and small boats operated by the IRGC. Washington said Iran’s attacks on three commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz violated a memorandum of understanding between the two countries, and followed up with airstrikes on Iran and the withdrawal of an oil sanctions waiver.

Choi Su-jin, Hankyung.com reporter naive@hankyung.com