A barrage of Iranian retaliatory strikes on U.S. military installations across the Middle East on Saturday resulted in no casualties to American personnel, U.S. Central command officials said.
With dust still settling from a U.S. and Israeli air, land and sea bombardment on targets across the Islamic Republic — part an operation dubbed Epic Fury — Iran responded by firing hundreds of missiles and drones at U.S. bases that were “successfully defended against,” a CENTCOM release stated.
“There have been no reports of U.S. casualties or combat- injuries,” the release stated. “Damage to U.S. installations was minimal and has not impacted operations.”
Video circulated earlier on Saturday purportedly showed the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet headquarters in Bahrain being hit in an Iranian strike.
At least 201 people have been killed and more than 700 injured across Iran, according to the Iranian Red Crescent Society.
The assault by U.S. and partner forces began Saturday at 1:15 a.m., CENTCOM officials stated, with the goal of knocking out “the Iranian regime’s security apparatus, prioritizing locations that posed an imminent threat.”
Among the primary targets of the operation were Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps command and control facilities, Iranian air defense capabilities, missile and drone launch sites and military airfields, according to the statement.
The compound of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was also targeted in the operation. A senior Israeli official told Reuters that Khamenei was killed in the strike, though the official status could not be confirmed as of press time.
“The president ordered bold action, and our brave soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, guardians and Coast Guardsmen are answering the call,” Adm. Brad Cooper, CENTCOM commander, said in a release.
The operation is the culmination of what CENTCOM officials called “the largest regional concentration of American military firepower in a generation.”
In addition to strikes carried out by U.S. fighter aircraft and naval vessels, the operation also saw the first combat use of the U.S. military’s new autonomous kamikaze drone.
The Low-cost Unmanned Combat Attack System, or LUCAS drone, is a one-way attack drone reverse-engineered after the Iranian Shahed-136.
Troops carrying out those strikes make up the newly formed Task Force Scorpion Strike squadron, a first-of-its-kind one-way-attack drone squadron led by U.S. Special Operations Command-Central personnel.
J.D. Simkins is the executive editor of Military Times and Defense News, and a Marine Corps veteran of the Iraq War.
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