Iran forces 1,500 US sailors out of key Bahrain base with sustained missile, drone strikes: Report

The soldiers and their families fled the base after an attack in the early days of the US-Israeli war on Iran  

News Desk - The Cradle 

One thousand five hundred sailors were evacuated back to the US from their naval base in Bahrain after it was attacked by Iranian missiles and drones early in the war, National Public Radio (NPR) reported on 4 April.

Bahrain is the home of the US Navy's 5th Fleet, making it a central hub for projecting US naval power in West Asia.

However, the oil-rich island is located in the Persian Gulf, just over 100 miles (around 161 kilometers) from the Iranian coast, and well within range of Iranian drones and missiles.

At the time the US and Israel launched their unprovoked war on Iran on 28 February, around 8,000 US military personnel were stationed at the base on the island, known as Naval Support Activity (NSA) Bahrain.

Video circulating on social media showed Iranian drones and missiles striking the NSA base multiple times on the first day of the war. Satellite imagery from the company Planet shows at least seven buildings in and near the base that were struck in the first week of the war.

The attacks forced the US military to evacuate 1,500 sailors and their families back to the US from the NSA base, a Navy spokesman acknowledged to NPR.

In addition to the base in Bahrain, US soldiers have been evacuated from other US military bases in the region, NPR wrote.

Since then, sailors have been arriving at the US naval base in Norfolk, Virginia, with little more than the clothes they could fit in a backpack. Evacuees left cars and furniture behind as they rushed to leave.

Norfolk community groups responded by collecting basic supplies like hygiene products and distributing them to the evacuated troops and their families.

“The base was asking for donations of toiletries and different things for the sailors coming back, because they were coming back with nothing,” said Derrick Johnson, commander of American Legion Post 327 in Norfolk.

In a sign of the threat to US personnel from Iranian missiles and drones, the Pentagon issued a call on 27 March for vendors who are able to ship pre-made shelters to protect troops in bases in West Asia.

The department is looking for private contractors to provide “prefabricated, transportable, hardened shelter systems designed to protect personnel from blast and fragmentation threats,” according to a new federal contract notice posted Monday.

The Pentagon confirmed that at least 13 US military personnel have been killed and 365 wounded in the war in Iran as of 3 April. Of the wounded, 247 were US Army soldiers, 63 were Navy sailors, 19 were Marines, and 36 were Air Force airmen.

An investigation by The Intercept published on 1 April found that almost 750 US troops have been wounded or killed in West Asia since October 2023, when Israel's genocide of Palestinians in Gaza began.

However, the Pentagon “won't acknowledge it,” The Intercept wrote.

US Central Command (CENTCOM), which oversees military operations in West Asia, appears to be engaged in what one US official speaking with the investigative news site called a “casualty cover-up.”

CENTCOM has provided “low-ball and outdated figures” and failed to provide details about military deaths and injuries.

It has also refused to provide a simple count of US bases that have been attacked during the war.

“We have nothing for you,” a CENTCOM spokesperson told The Intercept, which found that Iran has attacked US bases in Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and the UAE since the start of the war.