Manama

Manama is the capital and largest city of Bahrain, on the northern tip of Bahrain Island in the Persian Gulf. It is the kingdom's political and financial centre, home to the Manama Souq trading district and a regional banking sector that made Bahrain a Gulf financial hub after wealth shifted east from Beirut in the 1970s. The city has a large expatriate workforce alongside its Bahraini population, and the King Fahd Causeway links it by road to Saudi Arabia, anchoring its role as a regional transit and logistics point.

Manama hosts Naval Support Activity Manama, headquarters of the US Fifth Fleet and command centre for American naval operations across the Arabian Gulf, Red Sea and western Indian Ocean. Iran struck the base directly in the war's opening days , destroying several buildings and two AN/GSC-52B satellite communications terminals worth roughly $20 million each . The IRGC hit the base again on 28 June with Ballistic Missiles and drones, the first strike on the HQ since the 16 June ceasefire . Manama also hosts Task Force 59, the US Navy's unmanned-vessel unit, and was the venue for a 25 June GCC-US ministerial where Secretary of State Marco Rubio said there was zero Gulf support for any Hormuz toll . Bahrain's Patriot interceptor stock was estimated 87% depleted heading into a 3 June IRGC barrage, leaving the capital thinly defended.