Iran's Damage to US Base More Extensive Than Thought

Iran's missiles wreaked far greater damage on America's vital naval hub in Bahrain than the Pentagon has acknowledged, according to an investigation by the Wall Street Journal. The newspaper found that repeated missile and drone strikes between late February and June severely damaged the Fifth Fleet's headquarters, barracks, warehouses, water infrastructure, and key satellite communications gear—destruction the Pentagon has largely avoided describing in public. No deaths were reported, but satellite imagery and interviews suggest the American military's sole naval base in the Mideast is partly unusable.

That hit is now driving what officials describe as a generational reevaluation of America's Middle East footprint. Options on the table, the Journal says, include shrinking the US presence in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, hardening or moving pieces of the Bahrain base, shifting some functions farther west—possibly to Israel—and dispersing command nodes, potentially underground. Independent estimates put war-related damage to US facilities in the low billions, with roughly $400 million in construction losses in Bahrain alone. For the full scope of what was hit, what it cost, and how it could redraw the map of US power in the region, read the full story by Anika Arora Seth, Shelby Holliday, Denise Blostein, and Milan Czerny.