Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed on Thursday that its forces destroyed American Patriot and THAAD air-defence systems, C-RAM radars, helicopter hangars and drone shelters in a new wave of strikes on US military facilities in Jordan and Kuwait. A visual investigation published by The New York Times, based on satellite imagery and Iranian propaganda footage, corroborated damage to living quarters, operational areas and radar systems at nine US-linked sites over the past two weeks, including Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan, where three American soldiers were killed. The Pentagon declined to comment on the imagery, citing operational security, and no independent confirmation of the full extent of the damage has been made public.

Viewed from Tehran, the strikes are presented as legitimate retaliation for repeated US attacks on Iranian territory. In statements addressed to the people of Jordan and Kuwait, the IRGC argued it was targeting “lands occupied by the US army”, not violating the sovereignty of host nations, because American bases operate under US law and outside local military control. Iran also claimed responsibility for mining the Strait of Hormuz, asserting that the waterway would remain closed to oil tankers as long as US forces stayed in the region. US Central Command denied the strait was closed, stating it had helped more than 900 commercial vessels transit since May, and accused Iran of violating a June ceasefire. Jordanian officials, meanwhile, maintain that no US military bases exist on their soil, with the foreign minister calling such claims “completely false”, even as the kingdom’s military confirmed intercepting Iranian missiles and drones.

The attacks underscore Iran’s retained precision-strike capability despite repeated Trump administration assertions that its military capacity had been significantly degraded. The spillover has hit civilian infrastructure: Kuwait reported damage to power plants, water desalination facilities and oil refineries, forcing residents to limit air conditioning during extreme heat. Nearly a dozen US soldiers have been seriously injured and evacuated to a military hospital in Germany. The conflict has also drawn in other Gulf states, with Iran targeting US assets in Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, according to Russian and Iranian media reports.

The current escalation follows the collapse of a memorandum of understanding signed in June 2026 that had established a ceasefire and opened space for nuclear negotiations. Washington says Iran broke the truce; Tehran says the US used the pause to resupply and then resumed strikes. The US Congress has passed a resolution to limit President Trump’s war powers. The conflict began in February with a joint US-Israeli offensive against Iran, after which Iran retaliated against US bases across seven countries. As of Thursday, the US had conducted twelve consecutive nights of strikes on Iranian targets, while Iran continued to launch drone and missile barrages against US positions. No new diplomatic track is publicly active.