Bahrain and Kuwait carried out airstrikes against military sites inside Iran earlier in July 2026, according to a Wall Street Journal report summarized by The Jerusalem Post. The operation was described as the first direct retaliatory action by either Gulf state against Tehran.
The reported strikes targeted facilities used to store drones and missiles, along with other military locations. The account attributed the information to people familiar with the operation. Neither the precise date of the mission nor the number of aircraft, sites or weapons involved was specified in the cited report.
According to those sources, Bahrain and Kuwait deployed fighter jets despite having relatively small air forces equipped with aircraft of US and European origin. Their governments were reportedly unwilling to leave attacks attributed to Tehran unanswered. The account therefore presented the operation as retaliation, rather than an unconnected military action, but did not include direct statements from Bahraini, Kuwaiti or Iranian officials.
Report points to support from the UAE
The United Arab Emirates provided intelligence concerning the targets and defensive air cover for the strikes, the report claimed. Sources characterized that assistance as an indication of developing cooperation among Arab states against Iran. The UAE was also reported to have attacked Iran several times near the beginning of the war.
The same account said Saudi Arabia had joined the UAE in an earlier phase of strikes against Iran but was reassessing its position. No details were available about the nature of that reassessment, its timing or whether it had produced a change in Saudi military activity.
The reported actions by Bahrain and Kuwait were contrasted with the policies of Oman and Qatar. People familiar with the situation said those two countries had long sought to balance their relations with Iran and the West and had displayed little appetite for direct confrontation with Tehran. That distinction placed the alleged Bahrain-Kuwait mission within a varied Gulf response rather than describing a uniform regional policy.
The available evidence rests on a secondary account of the Wall Street Journal’s reporting and on unnamed sources said to know the details. It supports the reported involvement of Bahrain, Kuwait and the UAE, as well as references to earlier Saudi and Emirati action, but supplies no official confirmations or responses from the governments concerned.
The episode was reported on July 24, 2026, as a historical development said to have occurred earlier that month. On the evidence provided, the central significance claimed for the operation was that Bahrain and Kuwait had moved from facing attacks to undertaking their first direct retaliatory strikes within Iranian territory.
