‘Blew the hell out of it’: How Iran damaged US bases in Bahrain, Jordan

US official admits the naval base near Manama sustained heavy damage in the war with Iran.

F-15E, A-10 Thunderbolt, and C-130 Hercules at the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base, in Al-Azraq, Jordan [File: Planet Labs PBC/via Reuters]

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.

“They blew the hell out of Bahrain,” Hung Cao said in an interview with The Epoch Times on Wednesday, in a rare official admission of the impact of the conflict on a key US facility amid escalating tensions in the Gulf, six months into the US and Israel’s war on Iran.

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Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi responded to Cao’s acknowledgement of the damage inflicted on the US facility. “We appreciate the candor of Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao,” the official wrote on X.

“Our powerful Armed Forces did indeed ‘blow the hell out of the 5th Fleet HQ in Bahrain,’ as well as other bases supporting US aggression.”

US bases across the Middle East have come under repeated attack by Iran, raising questions about whether they can be sustained. 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.

What do we know about the damage to the US base in Bahrain?

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. “I have a task force that’s looking at that,” he told The Epoch Times.

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.

What is the NSA Bahrain?

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.

What happened to the US base in Jordan?

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.

The Jordanian Armed Forces said 18 of 20 missiles had been intercepted, with two falling in “open areas”. US forces fired about 30 Patriot interceptor missiles to counter the missiles, amid reports of depleting stockpiles of US air defence interceptors and other missiles.

However, the strikes still damaged multiple US military aircraft, CBS News reported. One A-10 Thunderbolt, an attack aircraft known as the Warthog, was struck and lost a wing, the news outlet said, citing sources.

Eight F-15s sustained light damage and were put back into service, according to people who spoke to CBS News anonymously because they were not authorised to speak publicly.

The Iranian strike on the base in Jordan was carried out after the US attacked five Iranian tankers in and around the Strait of Hormuz, in retaliation for Iran targeting a US Navy warship.

How important is the Jordanian base to the US?

The Muwaffaq Salti Air Base near Al-Azraq is located nearly 100km (62 miles) northeast of Amman. Its official name is a tribute to a Jordanian fighter pilot, Lieutenant Muwaffaq Salti, who was killed in combat with Israel in 1966 in the Battle of as-Samu.

The sprawling base, which has two runways, makes it an important asset for the US – and a target for Iran.

Tehran has claimed strikes on the Al-Azraq base more than 10 times between March and September. On June 10, the IRGC said its long-range missiles had destroyed several targets at the Al-Azraq airbase, including hangars and command centres. However, authorities in the countries targeted said all projectiles were intercepted without casualties.

In the following weeks, Iran claimed to have hit the Al-Azraq base multiple times, inflicting heavy damage to US assets there.

On July 17, Iran said it had hit US military aircraft stationed at the Al-Azraq base with ballistic missiles and drones, claiming to have destroyed several refuelling aircraft and fighter jets.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) later confirmed that two US service members had been “killed in action” in the Iranian attack, while one was missing and four were injured.

What other US military assets have been damaged in the Middle East?

According to a May report from the US Congressional Research Service, 42 US military aircraft had already been lost or damaged in the conflict by that time.

Since the Iran war began with US-Israeli strikes in February, ⁠18 US service members have been killed and more than 800 have been injured.

Iran has targeted key US facilities in eight countries in the Middle East since the start of the war. Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei claimed the Middle East was no longer a “safe place” for US bases.

Images and videos analysed by the BBC in June showed that Iran had damaged at least 20 US military sites since the start of the war, causing millions of dollars of damage.

Iranian strikes heavily hit US refuelling and surveillance aircraft at Prince Sultan Airbase in Saudi Arabia, as well as fuel storage bunkers, aircraft hangars and troop accommodation at the Ali Al Salem Airbase and Camp Arifjan in Kuwait, BBC reported.

Three state-of-the-art anti-ballistic missile battery systems, which cost about $1bn each to manufacture, were also damaged at the Al Ruwais and Al Sader airbases in the UAE and Muwaffaq Salti Airbase in Jordan.

美国官员承认，位于麦纳麦附近的美国海军基地在与伊朗的战争中遭受严重破坏。

约旦阿兹拉克穆瓦法克·萨尔蒂空军基地的F-15E、A-10雷电和C-130大力神运输机。[图片来源：Planet Labs PBC/via Reuters]

美国海军代理部长表示，位于巴林的一处美国军事设施在最近几个月与伊朗的冲突中遭受了严重破坏，这促使华盛顿评估其在中东的总部该如何处置。

“他们把巴林炸得一塌糊涂，”洪曹周三在接受《大纪元时报》采访时表示。这是美国和以色列对伊朗发动战争六个月后，海湾地区紧张局势不断升级之际，洪曹罕见地正式承认冲突对美国重要设施的影响。

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伊朗外交部长阿巴斯·阿拉格奇就海军代理部长洪曹承认美国设施受损一事作出回应。这位官员在X上写道：“我们赞赏海军代理部长洪曹的坦诚。”

“我们强大的武装部队确实‘把位于巴林的第五舰队总部炸得粉碎’，以及其他支持美国侵略的基地。”

美国在中东各地的军事基地屡遭伊朗袭击，引发人们对其能否持续存在的担忧。周二晚间，伊朗的空袭还击中了位于约旦的穆瓦法克·萨尔蒂空军基地（又称阿兹拉克空军基地），造成多架美军飞机受损。

我们对美国驻巴林基地受损情况了解多少？

从公开渠道获得的图像显示，美国位于巴林的海军支援基地（NSA）在2月底美国和以色列对伊朗发动空袭后，遭到报复性打击，并遭受严重破坏。据报道，该基地在2月至6月期间多次遭到袭击。

《华尔街日报》分析了卫星图像、社交媒体视频并采访了军人，得出结论：伊朗的袭击造成了广泛的破坏，但五角大楼并未立即承认这一点。

调查发现，基地内的指挥中心和至少十几栋其他建筑物遭到严重破坏。

曹表示，海军正在评估如何处置该基地，包括是否进行修复。“我有一个专门小组负责研究这个问题，”他告诉《大纪元时报》。

海军最高级别的军官达里尔·考德尔海军上将本月早些时候表示，由于遭受的损坏，巴林国家安全局不会“很快”恢复服役。

曹表示，基地受损也影响了“亚伯拉罕·林肯”号航空母舰的行动，导致舰员“无处停靠”。

据美国媒体报道，美国海军“亚伯拉罕·林肯”号航空母舰在中东地区近九个月的长期部署引发了船员的心理健康危机，一些水兵甚至试图跳海自杀。该舰于本月初最终停靠在泰国林查班港。

什么是巴林国家安全局？

在遭受严重破坏之前，美国国家安全局巴林基地是美国第五舰队和美国海军中央司令部 (NAVCENT) 的所在地，是美国海军在中东的主要后勤枢纽。

该基地位于首都麦纳麦几公里外的朱法尔，被美国新闻媒体描述为美国海军行动的神经中枢。

据其网站介绍，巴林国家安全局为“海上船舶、该地区的偏远地点以及居住在巴林的军事和文职人员提供服务和支持”。

在 2003 年美国入侵和占领伊拉克期间，该设施也是海军在该地区的主要基地。

美国在约旦的基地发生了什么事？

伊朗伊斯兰革命卫队（IRGC）称，周二晚间，该部队对驻扎在阿兹拉克基地的美军发动了“毁灭性”导弹袭击。该基地驻扎着美国军事资产和人员。

据半官方的塔斯尼姆通讯社报道，伊朗伊斯兰革命卫队在一份声明中表示，导弹“袭击了F-35、F-16和F-15战斗机的维护、准备和部署地点及其掩体，给敌人造成了重大损失”。

约旦武装部队称，20枚导弹中有18枚被拦截，另有两枚落入“空旷地带”。与此同时，有报道称美国防空拦截导弹和其他导弹的库存正在减少，美军发射了约30枚“爱国者”拦截导弹予以反击。

据哥伦比亚广播公司新闻报道，空袭仍然造成多架美军飞机受损。该新闻机构援引消息人士的话称，一架A-10“雷电”攻击机（绰号“疣猪”）被击中，机翼受损。

据匿名人士向哥伦比亚广播公司新闻透露，八架 F-15 战斗机受到轻微损坏，但已重新投入使用，这些人士表示他们没有被授权公开谈论此事。

伊朗对约旦境内该基地发动袭击之前，美国袭击了霍尔木兹海峡及其周边地区的五艘伊朗油轮，以报复伊朗袭击美国海军军舰。

约旦基地对美国有多重要？

穆瓦法克·萨尔蒂空军基地位于阿兹拉克附近，距安曼东北方向约 100 公里（62 英里）。其正式名称是为了纪念约旦战斗机飞行员穆瓦法克·萨尔蒂中尉，他于 1966 年在萨穆战役中与以色列作战时阵亡。

这座拥有两条跑道的庞大基地，对美国而言是一项重要的资产，同时也是伊朗的目标。

从3月到9月，德黑兰方面十多次声称对阿兹拉克空军基地发动袭击。6月10日，伊朗伊斯兰革命卫队表示，其远程导弹摧毁了阿兹拉克空军基地的多个目标，包括机库和指挥中心。然而，被袭击国家的当局表示，所有导弹均被拦截，未造成人员伤亡。

在接下来的几周里，伊朗声称多次袭击了阿兹拉克基地，对驻扎在那里的美国资产造成了严重破坏。

7月17日，伊朗称已用弹道导弹和无人机袭击了驻扎在阿兹拉克空军基地的美国军用飞机，并声称摧毁了数架加油机和战斗机。

美国中央司令部（CENTCOM）后来证实，两名美国军人在伊朗的袭击中“阵亡”，一人失踪，四人受伤。

美国在中东还有哪些其他军事资产遭到破坏？

根据美国国会研究服务处 5 月份的一份报告，截至当时，已有 42 架美国军用飞机在冲突中损失或受损。

自2月份美以联军发动空袭导致伊朗战争爆发以来，已有18名美军士兵丧生，800多人受伤。

自战争爆发以来，伊朗已对美国在中东八个国家的关键设施发动袭击。伊朗最高领袖穆杰塔巴·哈梅内伊声称，中东已不再是美国军事基地的“安全之地”。

英国广播公司 (BBC) 在 6 月份分析的图片和视频显示，自战争开始以来，伊朗至少破坏了 20 个美国军事设施，造成数百万美元的损失。

据英国广播公司报道，伊朗的空袭严重打击了沙特阿拉伯苏丹王子空军基地的美国加油机和侦察机，以及科威特阿里·萨利姆空军基地和阿里夫詹营地的燃料储存库、飞机库和部队营房。

阿联酋的鲁瓦伊斯空军基地和萨德尔空军基地以及约旦的穆瓦法克萨尔蒂空军基地的三套最先进的反弹道导弹防御系统也遭到破坏，每套系统的制造成本约为 10 亿美元。