Iran threatens to bomb US and allied bases in the Middle East

“Iran will attack American bases if attacked,” the Iranian defense chief emphasized, according to the local news agency More.

The military leader detailed that “all US bases and military bases from other countries in the region that assist the US in attacks on Iranian soil will be considered legitimate targets.”

“The Iranian response will be painful for its enemies,” he added.

American President Donald Trump has on several occasions threatened the Iranian regime with launching an attack against the country to defend the thousands of demonstrators who have taken to the streets for two weeks in protests across the Islamic republic, in which thousands of civilians have died, according to official regime sources and human rights observers.

Trump attacked nuclear facilities in Iran in June last year in an offensive that, according to the Iranians, killed more than a thousand people, most of them civilians, an action that Tehran responded to with an attack on a US base in neighboring Qatar, without major consequences.

Discover US military bases in the Middle East

The main US air base in the region is Al Udeidno Qatar, which was the target of the Iranian attack last year. It is considered the forward headquarters of US Central Command (Centcom).

The location concentrates the largest number of American military personnel in the entire Middle East, around 10,000 soldiers.

Washington also has a base in Bahrainwhere the headquarters of the Fifth Fleet of the American Navy is located; node Iraqi Kurdistan, the bases of Al Asad and Erbil, which are part of the coalition against the Islamic State in the region; node Kuwaitwhere one of the main US logistics centers in the Middle East operates – the Ali al-Salem air base and the Arifjan camp together concentrate approximately 13,500 military personnel.

For operations involving intelligence, the US focuses its activities on United Arab Emiratesat Al Dhafra air base.