A Bahrain-based United States military installation has sustained severe damage during recent months of fighting with Iran, the acting secretary of the US Navy has said, prompting Washington to evaluate what to do with its headquarters in the Middle East. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi responded to Cao’s acknowledgement of the damage inflicted on the US facility. Iranian strikes overnight on Tuesday also hit the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan, known as the Al-Azraq base, damaging multiple US military aircraft.
Imagery obtained from open sources indicates the US’s Naval Support Activity (NSA) base in Bahrain sustained heavy damage in retaliatory strikes after the US and Israel launched air attacks across Iran in late February. The base was repeatedly targeted between February and June, according to reports. The Wall Street Journal, which analysed satellite imagery, social media footage and conducted interviews with service members, concluded that Iranian strikes caused extensive damage which the Pentagon did not immediately acknowledge.
The command centre at the base and at least a dozen other buildings within the facility were hit hard, the investigation found. Cao said the Navy was evaluating what to do with the base now, including whether to repair it. Admiral Daryl Caudle, the Navy’s most senior uniformed officer, said earlier this month that the NSA Bahrain would not resume service “anytime soon” because of the damage it had sustained.
Cao said damage to the base also affected operations involving the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, leaving the crew with “no place for them to pull in”. The nearly nine-month extended deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Middle East has triggered a mental health crisis among the crew, with some sailors trying to jump overboard, according to US media reports. It finally docked at Laem Chabang, Thailand, earlier this month.
Until it was heavily damaged, the NSA Bahrain base was home to the US Fifth Fleet and the US Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT), serving as the Navy’s main logistics hub in the Middle East. The base, located a few kilometres from the capital Manama in Juffair, has been described by US news outlets as the nerve centre of US naval operations. According to its website, the NSA Bahrain provided “services and support to ships at sea, remote sites throughout the region, and military and civilian personnel living in Bahrain”.
The installation was also the primary base in the region for Navy activities during the US military invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it had launched “devastating” missile strikes on US forces stationed at the Al-Azraq base, which hosts US military assets and personnel, overnight on Tuesday. Missiles “struck the maintenance, preparation, and deployment sites of F-35, F-16, and F-15 fighter jets, as well as their shelters, inflicting heavy damage on the enemy”, the IRGC said in the statement reported by the semi-official Tasnim news agency.
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