KUWAIT CITY – The Iranian military hit two US military facilities in Kuwait with drone strikes on Saturday, targeting an ammunition depot at Camp Al-Udayri and a Patriot air defense radar along with an air surveillance system at Ali Al-Salem Air Base. This operation expanded the Iranian-American war beyond Iranian territory for the first time in weeks, as it arrived hours after Washington completed its eighth consecutive night of bombing of Iranian military sites.
The Iranian army confirmed in a statement that the drones bombed the ground forces ammunition depot in the Al-Adiri camp, the Patriot missile radar and the air surveillance radar in Ali Al-Salem. Sputnik reported The Iranian army described the two strikes as retaliatory. Neither side confirmed casualty figures in the immediate aftermath.
The US Central Command said that its night operations succeeded in striking Iranian military coastal surveillance facilities, air defense facilities, naval capabilities, and missile and drone storage sites, in an eighth consecutive night of strikes on Iran. US Central Command determined the total US military presence Throughout the Middle East with over 50,000 individuals.
US Central Command said: “More than 50,000 American servicemen and women in uniform are operating throughout the Middle East.” “They remain very alert, focused, lethal and ready.”
The conflict began on February 28, 2026, when the United States and Israel launched Operation Epic Fury. A ceasefire memorandum signed on June 18 halted hostilities before President Donald Trump declared the agreement invalid on July 9, with US strikes resuming the day before that announcement. Iran responded with Operation True Promise 4, a retaliatory campaign that has now reached US military assets in Kuwait, a country that has hosted US forces under a bilateral defense agreement since the 1991 Gulf War.
At the same time, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard announced the condition of Hormuz’s permit. like As reported by SputnikIran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced that no oil tanker, liquefied natural gas ship or cargo ship can cross the Strait of Hormuz without Iranian coordination and permission. Four ships defied the order on Saturday, disabling their navigation systems and attempting what Tehran called an unsafe route. Two had unspecified accidents and stopped. Two more turned back before they reached the strait.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard announced that “not even a drop of oil, gas or fertilizer” would be able to cross Hormuz without Iranian permission, effectively placing the world’s most important energy checkpoint as an effective Iranian maritime exclusion zone.
Energy risks are immediate. Nearly 20% of the world’s traded oil passes through Hormuz. When Iran previously struck US bases in five Gulf countries and traffic in Hormuz fell near zero, Brent crude rose by four percent in one session. During the brief ceasefire that followed, tanker data showed that Iran exported an estimated $5 billion to $6 billion worth of oil under a temporary exemption from US sanctions. That window closed when Trump nullified the ceasefire. The announcement of Hormuz’s statement on Saturday shuts him down even more.
Kuwait did not officially condemn the attacks on its territory. Camp Al-Udayri and Ali Al-Salem are joint US-Kuwaiti facilities that host US forces under a defense agreement that preceded the current conflict. Iran’s decision to target them represents a geographic expansion of the war that could force Kuwait to take a public stance that it has carefully avoided since February.
Targeting the Patriot radar in the Ali Al-Salem area is of special operational importance. Patriot batteries are essential to US air defense across Gulf facilities, and weakening the surveillance radar reduces the warning time and targeting ability for any subsequent Iranian strikes in the region. The attack on the ammunition depot at Camp Al-Udayri, if the damage is confirmed, will impact the ability of US ground forces to continue expanded operations from Kuwaiti territory.
Iran’s network of proxies across the region has remained on standby throughout the current escalation cycle. Iranian Revolutionary Guard commanders stationed with Yemeni Houthi forces have reportedly been instructed to prepare to close Bab al-Mandab as a secondary checkpoint in the event that US strikes against Iran’s energy infrastructure continue. The closure of Hormuz announced on Saturday activates part of that pressure campaign, but does not yet require Houthi movement in the Red Sea.
The internal dimension within Iran is also important. The US strikes knocked out an estimated 4,200 megawatts of Iran’s electrical grid, damaging more than 2,000 transmission points across the country. Persistent power outages in Tehran during summer heat reaching 41 degrees have created significant civilian pressures. Striking US bases in Kuwait, regardless of the confirmed casualties, offers the Iranian leadership clear retaliation to deliver to a population suffering from infrastructure disruption.
Washington has not spoken publicly about how it will calibrate its response to attacks on US military facilities in a third country. Last week, Trump threatened to bomb Iranian power plants and bridges. It is unclear whether the Kuwait attacks will accelerate this decision through official US statements issued on Saturday.
What the Kuwait strikes do not resolve is whether either side has a political path out of the current cycle. A ceasefire was signed on June 18 and was canceled within weeks. The second negotiating break requires that one party make the first public concession. Neither Trump nor the Iranian leadership showed this readiness. With fifty thousand US troops in the Middle East and Iran pressing two simultaneous pressure points on Hormuz and on US facilities in a third country, the threshold of what can be considered a manageable escalation is being tested on both sides.
