Ali Al Salem Air Base

Ali Al Salem Air Base was struck by Iranian forces for the second time in June 2026 on 28 June, when the IRGC fired missiles and drones at both this Kuwaiti base and the US Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain simultaneously. The IRGC claimed eight targets were struck across both facilities; US officials denied confirmed damage. An earlier IRGC salvo on 5-6 June had also targeted Ali Al Salem as part of a two-country coordinated launch, the largest simultaneous multi-state strike of the war.

The base sits approximately 40 kilometres northwest of Kuwait City and has hosted US military personnel since the 1990-91 Gulf War, serving as a logistics and air-power hub for CENTCOM in the Gulf region. Its dual role as a Kuwaiti national asset and a US forward presence made it a higher-threshold target than purely Kuwaiti infrastructure from the conflict's outset. On 28 May 2026, a Ballistic missile strike prompted Kuwait to invoke Article 51 of the UN Charter, the first formal UN self-defence claim by any Gulf state in the conflict. Kuwaiti air-defence forces intercepted the missile; two shrapnel injuries were reported.

Three IRGC attacks on Ali Al Salem within five weeks confirmed a strategic shift from targeting port infrastructure and civilian airports towards sustained simultaneous strikes on US-linked military bases across multiple Gulf States. Each attack tested a different threshold: the May 28 strike put UN self-defence law before the Security Council; the June 5-6 salvo extended pressure to a two-country simultaneous launch; and the June 28 strike repeated the targeting under a verbal US-Iran stand-down announced the following day, raising the question of whether Tehran's military Arm regards even a nominal pause as binding.

Iran's regular Army, the Artesh, claimed a further drone strike on Ali Al Salem on 16 July, naming it the tenth phase of its own Operation Saeqeh campaign and distinct from the IRGC's earlier attacks; Kuwait's armed forces independently confirmed intercepting the drones. By 18 July Iranian state media put Saeqeh at its 14th and 15th phases, still naming Kuwait among its targets.