Iran has responded to the U.S.-Israeli assault on the country by launching drones and missiles at American targets across the Middle East, hitting embassies, killing U.S. soldiers and damaging military bases and air defense infrastructure.

The New York Times has identified at least 17 damaged U.S. sites and other installations, several of which have been struck more than once since the war began. The Times’ analysis was based on high-resolution commercial satellite imagery, verified social media videos and statements by U.S. officials and the Iranian state news media.

The intensity of the retaliatory strikes has signaled that Iran was more prepared for the war than many in the Trump administration had anticipated, U.S. military officials say.

Military Sites

Iran has fired thousands of missiles and drones at U.S. and allied country military sites across the region. The United States and its allies have intercepted most of them, U.S. officials say, but at least 11 American military bases or installations have been damaged — nearly half of all such sites in the region.

On Feb. 28, the first day of the conflict, Iran targeted several U.S. military facilities, including Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia; Ali Al Salem Air Base and the Camp Buehring base in Kuwait; and Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, the largest U.S. base in the Middle East.

In one video, taken March 1, an Iranian drone blew up at Camp Buehring. No casualties were reported.

It is difficult to estimate the full cost of damage inflicted by Iran’s retaliatory strikes.

A Pentagon assessment provided to Congress last week put the cost of the single strike on the U.S. Navy 5th Fleet headquarters in Bahrain on Feb. 28 at roughly $200 million, according to a congressional official.

On March 1, an Iranian drone struck a structure housing military personnel at the port of Shuaiba in Kuwait, killing six U.S. service members.

The same day, an additional U.S. service member was killed in an Iranian strike at a U.S. base in Saudi Arabia, bringing the toll to seven, the Pentagon said.

The pace of Iranian attacks has slowed since the war’s opening days, but the strikes have continued. Al Udeid Air Base, Ali Al Salem Air Base, Al Dhafra Air Base, Camp Buehring and the 5th Fleet headquarters have all been struck more than once.

Missiles launched from Iran have flown as far as Turkey. On March 4, NATO intercepted an Iranian ballistic missile headed toward Incirlik Air Base there, according to a senior U.S. military official.

The base hosts a large U.S. Air Force contingent. Iran’s military denied firing the missile.

On Monday, a second Iranian missile entered Turkish airspace and was shot down by NATO, according to a Turkish defense ministry statement.

Air Defense and Communication Infrastructure

Among the costliest American losses to infrastructure have been to the air defense systems that protect U.S. and allied interests across the Middle East.

Iran has systematically targeted radar and communications systems, including components of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD, which uses radar to track and intercept incoming aerial threats throughout the region.

At Muwaffaq Salti Air Base, an important hub for the U.S. Air Force in Jordan, satellite imagery from February shows radar equipment at the base’s southern edge. An image taken two days after the war began shows severe damage to what appears to be an air defense sensor.

Military budget and contract documents indicate a single radar unit of this type can cost up to $500 million.

On Feb. 28, an Iranian drone struck the Navy’s 5th Fleet headquarters in Manama, Bahrain, a video showed, damaging what appeared to be a radome — a weatherproof cover for radar and communication equipment.

Gulf nations have bought air defense equipment from American companies and deployed it near critical infrastructure, including oil refineries. The equipment includes radar systems that share information with the U.S. military, forming what defense analysts describe as a de facto expanded sensor network for the American military.

Iran has targeted such sites where air defense equipment was recently observed, such as an installation near Al Ruwais in the United Arab Emirates. Satellite imagery of the site from last year shows a mobile THAAD unit near storage structures.

A satellite image taken after Iranian attacks shows significant damage to the storage structures. The Times was unable to verify whether the THAAD unit was inside the storage structures at the time of the strikes.

Near Umm Dahal in Qatar, a long range AN/FPS-132 radar — built at a cost of $1.1 billion to provide early warning coverage across a 3,000-mile radius — apparently sustained damage to its main radar structure, as seen in satellite imagery.

The full extent of damage to U.S. air defense and communication infrastructure remains unclear.

Michael Eisenstadt, a director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said that the affected radars would be difficult to repair or replace.

But Seth G. Jones, a president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that the damage would most likely not significantly degrade U.S. military capabilities in this war. “The U.S. has such redundancy in collecting intelligence and other information from sensor networks, whether it’s land-based radars, aircrafts or space-based systems,” he said.

Diplomatic Sites

Iran has also struck nonmilitary U.S. targets such as the consulate in Dubai, UAE, and embassies in Kuwait City, Kuwait, and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, forcing temporary closures. There have been no reported injuries in the attacks.

On Saturday, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad was targeted in a rocket attack. No casualties were reported.

It was not immediately clear who was behind it or how much damage was caused. It is not included in the Times’ tally of damaged sites.

Adm. Brad Cooper, the commander of the U.S. Central Command, said on Saturday that Iranian ballistic missile attacks had dropped by 90% since the first day of the conflict, and drone attacks by 83%. Despite the decline in pace, Iran has continued to strike American targets across the region.

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SOURCES: Mark F. Cancian, senior adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies Defense and Security Department; Seth G. Jones, president of the CSIS Defense and Security Department; Thomas Karako, director of the CSIS Missile Defense Project; Brian Carter, fellow with the Critical Threats Project at the American Enterprise Institute; Michael Eisenstadt, director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy’s Military and Security Studies Program; and Sam Lair, research associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Bora Erden and Leanne Abraham
c. 2026 The New York Times Company