Iran Strikes U.S. Bases in Gulf, Crossing a Strategic Threshold

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps attacked U.S. military installations in Kuwait and Bahrain with ballistic missiles on June 6, marking one of the most direct kinetic strikes on American forward-deployed forces in decades. The attack followed Israeli strikes on Beirut and Iranian claims that U.S. and Israeli assets were now legitimate targets. The threshold crossing places American forces directly in an active conflict zone and complicates Washington's diplomatic positioning while Israel continues unilateral strikes against Iran.