Above photo: X.
Iran claims retaliatory strikes on key Gulf energy sites.
US-Israeli strikes have been targeting major infrastructure across Iran, including bridges, medical facilities and energy and petrochemical sites.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed responsibility for several strikes targeting US-linked energy and petrochemical sites in the Gulf, following US-Israeli attacks on major Iranian infrastructure.
The IRGC said it attacked US gas facilities linked to ExxonMobil and Chevron in the UAE.
It also said it launched “a missile attack on US petrochemical facilities producing fuel materials for the US armed forces and military products for the Israeli entity in Al-Ruwais, UAE, causing a widespread fire.”
It also confirmed that Tehran was behind drone attacks on US-linked petrochemical sites in Sitra, Bahrain, including the Bapco refinery, as well as in southern Kuwait’s Shuaiba.
Additionally, the IRGC claimed “a severe attack on a refinery supplying fuel for the child-killing fighter jets of the Israeli entity in Haifa, which led to the destruction of its main sections.”
“[The US and Israel] must know that in response to the aggression against non-military infrastructure in Iran, what happened today is only the first phase of the response that we had previously warned against,” it went on to say.
“We announced from the beginning that any aggression against non-military targets would be met with a reciprocal response against the enemy’s interests anywhere in the region. In the event that the attack on non-military targets is repeated, the second phase of this operation will be carried out in a more destructive and wider manner, and their damages and losses will multiply due to their persistence in this approach.”
Clouds of black smoke were seen rising from the targeted facilities in the UAE, Bahrain, and Kuwait early on 5 April.
BREAKING | Strikes on Bahrain, reportedly at Bapco Sitra Refinery pic.twitter.com/xgenWrqPig
— The Cradle (@TheCradleMedia) April 5, 2026
VIDEO | A drone strike ignited a fire at Kuwait’s Shuwaikh oil complex, the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation said, adding no casualties were reported and crews are responding. pic.twitter.com/5Fl52j30WN
— The Cradle (@TheCradleMedia) April 5, 2026
Kuwaiti authorities claimed Iran also struck a desalination plant. Tehran had recently denied an earlier attack on a Kuwaiti desalination facility, calling it a new Israeli false-flag aimed at causing chaos and destabilization.
VIDEO | Circulating footage reportedly shows attacks on a Kuwaiti energy facility.
According to Kuwait’s Ministry of Electricity, power and water desalination plants were hit by a drone strike, resulting in significant damage. Two power generation units are out of service. pic.twitter.com/bmc1ZWpCUB
— The Cradle (@TheCradleMedia) April 5, 2026
Officials in the UAE said operations at the Borouge petrochemical plant were suspended following the outbreak of multiple fires caused by the Iranian strikes.
US and Israeli airstrikes recently bombarded major infrastructure in Iran, including the B1 Bridge and the Pasteur Institute. Over the weekend, US-Israeli strikes targeted Iran’s largest petrochemical facilities, the Bandar Imam Petrochemical Complex.
The IRGC’s announcement on Sunday came as US President Donald Trump threatened to strike Iranian power plants and bridges over the coming days.
“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it! Open the fuckin’ strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in hell – JUST WATCH. Praise be to Allah,” the president said.
Iran forces 1,500 US sailors out of key Bahrain base with sustained missile, drone strikes.
The soldiers and their families fled the base after an attack in the early days of the US-Israeli war on Iran.
One thousand five hundred sailors were evacuated back to the US from their naval base in Bahrain after it was attacked by Iranian missiles and drones early in the war, National Public Radio (NPR) reported on 4 April.
Bahrain is the home of the US Navy’s 5th Fleet, making it a central hub for projecting US naval power in West Asia.
However, the oil-rich island is located in the Persian Gulf, just over 100 miles (around 161 kilometers) from the Iranian coast, and well within range of Iranian drones and missiles.
At the time the US and Israel launched their unprovoked war on Iran on 28 February, around 8,000 US military personnel were stationed at the base on the island, known as Naval Support Activity (NSA) Bahrain.
Video circulating on social media showed Iranian drones and missiles striking the NSA base multiple times on the first day of the war. Satellite imagery from the company Planet shows at least seven buildings in and near the base that were struck in the first week of the war.
The attacks forced the US military to evacuate 1,500 sailors and their families back to the US from the NSA base, a Navy spokesman acknowledged to NPR.
In addition to the base in Bahrain, US soldiers have been evacuated from other US military bases in the region, NPR wrote.
🚨 Breaking: Thick black smoke is seen rising from Naval Support Activity Bahrain, the U.S. Navy base that hosts the U.S. Fifth Fleet headquarters, after the facility was reportedly struck once again by ballistic missiles and drones launched by Iran this morning amid the ongoing… pic.twitter.com/av41vhhxKd
— Umair Aslam (@Defense785) March 2, 2026
Since then, sailors have been arriving at the US naval base in Norfolk, Virginia, with little more than the clothes they could fit in a backpack. Evacuees left cars and furniture behind as they rushed to leave.
Norfolk community groups responded by collecting basic supplies like hygiene products and distributing them to the evacuated troops and their families.
“The base was asking for donations of toiletries and different things for the sailors coming back, because they were coming back with nothing,” said Derrick Johnson, commander of American Legion Post 327 in Norfolk.
In a sign of the threat to US personnel from Iranian missiles and drones, the Pentagon issued a call on 27 March for vendors who are able to ship pre-made shelters to protect troops in bases in West Asia.
The department is looking for private contractors to provide “prefabricated, transportable, hardened shelter systems designed to protect personnel from blast and fragmentation threats,” according to a new federal contract notice posted Monday.
The Pentagon confirmed that at least 13 US military personnel have been killed and 365 wounded in the war in Iran as of 3 April. Of the wounded, 247 were US Army soldiers, 63 were Navy sailors, 19 were Marines, and 36 were Air Force airmen.
An investigation by The Intercept published on 1 April found that almost 750 US troops have been wounded or killed in West Asia since October 2023, when Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza began.
However, the Pentagon “won’t acknowledge it,” The Intercept wrote.
US Central Command (CENTCOM), which oversees military operations in West Asia, appears to be engaged in what one US official speaking with the investigative news site called a “casualty cover-up.”
CENTCOM has provided “low-ball and outdated figures” and failed to provide details about military deaths and injuries.
It has also refused to provide a simple count of US bases that have been attacked during the war.
“We have nothing for you,” a CENTCOM spokesperson told The Intercept, which found that Iran has attacked US bases in Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and the UAE since the start of the war.
Drone strike on US Embassy in Saudi Arabia was Israeli ‘false flag’.
Iran has denied several attacks on its neighbors, including on desalination plans in Kuwait and a major oil refinery in Saudi Arabia.
Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) rejected on 4 April accusations that it carried out an attack on the US Embassy in Saudi Arabia during the early days of the war, saying that it was a false flag operation carried out by Israel.
In a statement issued to condemn the 3 March drone attack on the US Embassy in Riyadh, the IRGC stressed that “this action was certainly carried out by Zionists.”
The IRGC issued the statement in response to a new report in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on Saturday claiming that the attack “did more extensive damage than previously disclosed,” while “showing Iran’s ability to hit Washington’s assets in the kingdom.”
Citing US officials, WSJ claimed that an Iranian drone evaded Saudi air defenses guarding Riyadh’s gated Diplomatic Quarter before smashing into the US Embassy compound. A minute later, a second drone hit the same breach and exploded.
No casualties resulted, as the strike was carried out at night. Had it taken place during the day, it would have killed large numbers of US and local embassy staff.
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) station was among the areas hit, WSJ added, citing people familiar with the matter.
“There’s been a complete blackout on the actual amount of damage done to these places,” said Bernard Hudson, a former CIA counterterrorism chief, regarding US embassies and bases targeted by Iran. “That feeds suspicions that a lot more damage may have actually happened.”
The IRGC has confirmed it has struck US and Israeli assets and bases in Gulf states and across the region, many of which play a direct role in the war on Iran. However, IRGC commanders have clearly identified their intended targets, and the US embassy in Riyadh was not among them.
The IRGC statement added that Iran had already informed neighboring countries of the necessary warnings to “prevent further escalation,” and warned that countries in the region “must remain vigilant against provocations from the American–Zionist current,” which aims to destabilize the region and create chaos between Iran and neighboring states.
Iran has stated that multiple attacks attributed to it since the start of the war on 28 February have been false flags carried out by Israel.
On Friday, the IRGC condemned the alleged targeting of a water desalination plant in Kuwait, saying that Israel was “behind this cowardly act of aggression aimed at sowing discord.”
Kuwaiti authorities attributed the attack to Iran.
In a previous attack on 30 March, an Indian national was killed after a Kuwaiti power and desalination plant was hit. Iran also denied claims it launched the attack and blamed Israel.
In another case, Iran denied targeting Saudi Aramco’s Ras Tanura refinery in early March. Ras Tanura, the biggest oil refinery in the country, was shuttered for 11 days following a drone attack.
An Iranian military source speaking with the Tasnim News Agency said that the attack was an Israeli false flag attack aimed at distracting regional countries from Israel’s strikes on civilian sites inside Iran, stressing that “Aramco facilities have not been among the targets of Iranian attacks so far.”
