Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said its navy and aerospace forces destroyed several weapons storage depots and vessel and aircraft parts at Bahrain's Sheikh Isa base in a combined missile and drone strike, in its tenth communique on Operation Nasr 2, IRNA reported on July 14.
The IRGC said the same operation also hit the ramp used to deploy US MQ-9 drones at Kuwait's Ali Al Salem base, destroying or damaging a number of the aircraft.
The UK proscribed "state enemy" group described the strikes as retaliation for US attacks that afternoon on several coastal stations belonging to Iran's armed forces, and warned of further reprisals if the strikes continued, saying it would meet any repeat with what it called surprising responses.
The statement said Iran would keep responding in kind for as long "American crimes" continued, and warned that no oil or gas would be exported from the region while what it called American hostility persisted in the area, adding that the attacks would only delay the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
The claims form part of a wider wave of communiques issued by the IRGC on July 14 under Operation Nasr 2, in which it earlier said its forces had struck weapons-support depots, a satellite communications centre and accommodation used by US personnel at Bahrain's Juffair base, along with a Patriot radar, a Fifth Fleet air control radar and a counter-rocket, artillery and mortar radar system.
It also said command and monitoring facilities for unguided boats were destroyed, and separately claimed ballistic missile strikes on a US-linked airbase in Jordan.
The operation followed a five-hour CENTCOM offensive concluded in the early hours of July 14, which the US military said targeted Iranian coastal defence systems, missile launch infrastructure, drone positions and naval capabilities at Bushehr, Chabahar, Jask, Konarak, Abu Musa and Bandar Abbas.
None of the IRGC's claims regarding damage at the Bahraini or Kuwaiti bases have been independently verified by Newsbase, and neither Washington nor Bahraini or Kuwaiti authorities have confirmed them.
The renewed strikes have driven tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz to a fraction of its pre-war level. Just 34 vessels transited the strait on July 5, against a typical daily flow of around 88, according to the IMF's PortWatch monitor, while trade intelligence firm Kpler recorded 14 vessels crossing on July 13, four of them crude tankers, down around 60% on the equivalent day a week earlier.
Ship-tracking analysts at Windward said traffic through the US-protected southern corridor hugging Oman's coast had effectively collapsed over the weekend, with owners increasingly routing vessels through Iran's northern corridor instead or switching off transponders to avoid tracking.
The US Energy Department said more than 8mn barrels of oil transited Hormuz on July 12 with US military assistance, as Washington seeks to keep flows running with or without Iranian cooperation, putting total Gulf crude exports at around 15mn barrels a day.
War-risk insurance premiums for tankers using the strait have risen to roughly eight times pre-crisis levels, with several protection and indemnity clubs withdrawing cover altogether, while Brent crude has climbed more than 6% over the past 24 hours amid the latest exchange of strikes.