Iran Says It Struck US Bases in Jordan, Bahrain and Kuwait as War Widens

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Tuesday they had struck United States military targets in Bahrain and Kuwait, according to The Hindu, which is tracking the conflict, and that they had stopped two "non-compliant" oil tankers attempting to transit the Strait of Hormuz. The claims widen a war that began with strikes on Iranian territory into the Gulf states that host American forces.

Russian outlet Kommersant, citing The Wall Street Journal, reported that an Iranian missile hit an aircraft hangar and a block where soldiers were sleeping at the Muwaffaq Salti air base in Jordan. The Pentagon has since confirmed the loss of life, identifying two soldiers killed in the Jordan attack as Tyler James Feehan, 25, of Hawaii and Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Texas. Its spokesman, Sean Parnell, said that nearly 100 service members had sustained some degree of injury since strikes resumed on July 7, that 96 percent had returned to duty, and that most of the injuries were minor concussions.

President Trump warned that Iran "will pay" for killing American soldiers, The Hindu noted in an earlier update that also included the Guards' account of two tankers exploding on a southern Hormuz route. Each side describes the other as the aggressor. The Pentagon made its casualty disclosure to counter a New York Times report that it had withheld the scale of American injuries, a charge it called a fabrication.

For host governments in the Gulf, the strikes turn a distant war into a domestic security and political problem, forcing choices about basing rights and participation that carry costs at home.