U.S. airstrikes hit northern Iran as it disables ship trying to run blockade
The US military carried out further airstrikes on targets in northern Iran, part of a continuing campaign to degrade Iran's ability to threaten shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
The US Navy disabled a vessel attempting to breach the reimposed naval blockade of Iranian ports and coastal waters, reported to have been sailing toward the Kharg Island oil terminal.
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) responded with missile and drone strikes on Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait — all of which host US military installations.
Authorities in Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait activated missile-alert systems and air defences in response to the incoming strikes.
US Military Basing Architecture in the Gulf
The US maintains its Gulf military presence through the US Central Command (CENTCOM), whose forward operating structure depends on host-nation basing agreements with individual Gulf states. Bahrain and Kuwait — both struck in this round of retaliation — are two of the most significant nodes in this basing network, which is why they, rather than other Gulf states, were targeted.
Key Details
- Bahrain hosts Naval Support Activity Bahrain, headquarters of the US Navy's Fifth Fleet and US Naval Forces Central Command, with a mandate covering the Gulf, Red Sea, Arabian Sea and parts of the Indian Ocean; the US has used the facility since 1948
- Kuwait hosts Camp Arifjan, a major US Army logistics, supply and command hub built in 1999, along with Ali Al Salem Air Base
- Qatar's Al Udeid Air Base serves as CENTCOM's forward headquarters, the largest US-used airbase in the Middle East
- Basing access rests on bilateral defence cooperation agreements between the US and each host state, not on any single regional treaty covering the whole Gulf
Iran's choice of Bahrain and Kuwait as retaliation targets follows directly from their role as the two principal US basing hubs in the Gulf — the strikes are aimed at US military infrastructure hosted by these states, not at the states' own forces.
IRGC and Artesh — Iran's Dual Military Structure
Iran maintains two parallel armed forces: the regular Iranian Army (Artesh), constitutionally tasked with defending national sovereignty and borders, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), established in May 1979 after the Iranian Revolution to safeguard the Islamic Republic's political system. Retaliatory and extraterritorial operations of the kind seen in this escalation are conducted by the IRGC rather than the Artesh.
Key Details
- The IRGC comprises five branches: Ground Forces, Aerospace Force, Navy, the Quds Force, and the Basij paramilitary volunteer force
- The Quds Force, the IRGC's extraterritorial arm, specialises in unconventional warfare and has conducted foreign operations since the early 1980s
- The Artesh and IRGC maintain separate chains of command, both ultimately reporting to Iran's Supreme Leader as Commander-in-Chief
- IRGC-attributed strikes on shipping and neighbouring states' territory are typically distinguished, in international commentary, from conventional inter-state military action precisely because of this institutional duality
Attribution of the Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait strikes to the IRGC (rather than Iran's regular armed forces) reflects the IRGC's specific mandate for asymmetric and extraterritorial retaliation, a recurring feature of Iran's response pattern in this conflict.
International Humanitarian Law — Distinction and Proportionality in Targeting
Even where a state invokes a right of self-defence or retaliation, the conduct of hostilities remains governed by International Humanitarian Law (IHL), primarily the four Geneva Conventions (1949) and their 1977 Additional Protocols. Two customary principles apply irrespective of which side is attacking: distinction and proportionality.
Key Details
- The principle of distinction (Article 48, Additional Protocol I) requires parties to direct attacks only at military objectives, not civilians or civilian objects
- The principle of proportionality (Article 51(5)(b), Additional Protocol I) prohibits attacks where expected civilian harm would be excessive relative to the anticipated military advantage — it does not require zero civilian harm, only that harm not be excessive
- Both principles are considered part of customary international law, binding even on states that are not parties to the Additional Protocols
- Reports of civilian casualties, including women and children, in recent strikes on Iran raise IHL compliance questions independent of the separate legal question of whether resort to force itself was justified (the jus ad bellum question, governed by the UN Charter)
As strikes and counter-strikes extend to populated Gulf states, IHL's distinction and proportionality principles become the operative legal standard for assessing individual attacks, separate from the broader question of which side's use of force is lawful under the UN Charter.
India's Diaspora Exposure in Bahrain and Kuwait
India's population and remittance stakes in Bahrain and Kuwait are large and long-standing, making any escalation involving these two states a direct concern for India's consular and evacuation planning, distinct from India's exposure in Iran or Israel.
Key Details
- An estimated 350,000 Indian nationals reside in Bahrain and roughly 1 million in Kuwait, among the largest expatriate communities in each country
- Indian communities in the Gulf trace back to the colonial-era oil industry of the 1940s-50s in Kuwait and Bahrain
- Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries collectively account for around 38% of India's total inward remittances despite housing roughly a quarter of India's overseas diaspora
- India's Ministry of External Affairs maintains standing consular contingency plans for Gulf states, activated in past crises through operations such as the 1990 Kuwait airlift and the 2025 Operation Sindhu evacuation from Iran and Israel
Strikes reaching Bahrain and Kuwait directly, rather than remaining confined to Iran or the Strait of Hormuz, place two of India's largest and most economically significant Gulf diaspora communities within the zone of active hostilities.
- US Fifth Fleet/Naval Forces Central Command headquartered in Bahrain since 1948; Bahrain hosts roughly 9,000 US personnel
- Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, built 1999, is CENTCOM's principal logistics hub; Kuwait hosts roughly 13,500 US personnel
- IRGC established: May 1979; five branches including Ground Forces, Aerospace Force, Navy, Quds Force, Basij
- IHL distinction principle: Additional Protocol I, Article 48 (1977); proportionality principle: Article 51(5)(b)
- Indian diaspora: approximately 350,000 in Bahrain, approximately 1 million in Kuwait
- GCC share of India's total remittances: approximately 38% (FY 2023-24)
- Prior evacuation precedent: 2025 Operation Sindhu evacuated over 4,400 Indian nationals from Iran and Israel