Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps carried out strikes against US military facilities in Jordan, Bahrain, and Kuwait within hours of each other on July 14, part of an operation the IRGC designated “Operation Nasr 2,” according to The Tribune.
The IRGC said it destroyed weapons and equipment storage sheds and struck ship and aircraft parts at Bahrain’s Sheikh Isa Air Base, while hitting the ramp used to deploy MQ-9 drones at Kuwait’s Ali Al Salem Air Base, destroying or damaging several aircraft. Jordan’s armed forces said they intercepted and shot down four missiles that entered the kingdom’s airspace from Iranian territory, with no casualties reported. The IRGC also called on Jordanians to press for the removal of US bases from the kingdom, describing the facilities as tied to what it called “child-killing” American forces, a reference to the February 28 strike on a primary school in Minab that killed over 100 children, according to Amnesty International.
The strikes followed a US attack on Iran’s Bandar Abbas Naval Base on July 12, in which CENTCOM used armed sea drones in combat for the first time, striking a submarine and ship maintenance facility, according to USNI News.
The exchange comes as a fragile arrangement over the Strait of Hormuz unravels. A US naval blockade of Iran that ran from April 13 to June 18 was lifted under a memorandum allowing Iranian oil exports in exchange for safe passage through the strait. That arrangement broke down in early July after Iranian strikes on commercial ships in the strait prompted Washington to revoke Iran’s oil-export authorization, with President Donald Trump separately proposing a 20 percent toll on cargo transiting Hormuz, according to CNBC. The US blockade resumed on July 14.
