US troops arrive: More than 3,500 U.S. troops, including the USS Tripoli with about 2,500 Marines, arrived in the Middle East, officials announced Saturday, as strikes in the Iran war intensified
Houthis enter the war: Houthis launch their first missile barrage on Israel since Operation Epic Fury. Red Sea shipping could once again be under direct threat.
UAE Aluminum plant damaged in Iranian drone strike: Emirates Global Aluminium – the Middle East’s largest aluminum producer and the biggest industrial company in the United Arab Emirates outside oil and gas – said its production plant at Al Taweelah sustained significant damage in an Iranian drone and missile attack on Abu Dhabi.
Serious US casualties in Saudi base assault: Iran fired six ballistic missiles and 29 drones at Saudi Arabia’s Prince Sultan air base in a Friday attack that wounded at least 15 troops: AP. Late-night strike targeted Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant (for third time of war).
Gulf states under sustained fire, casualties mount: Six wounded in missile strike on Abu Dhabi; Bahrain intercepts waves of missiles and drones near the United States Fifth Fleet base; Kuwait reports damage to Mubarak Al-Kabeer Port and Shuwaikh Port.
US expending billions on Operation Epic Fury: “Battle damage and replacement of losses over the first three weeks of the war likely costs roughly $1.4 billion to $2.9 billion”
At Least 15 Americans Wounded in Major Strikes on Saudi Base
The most significant overnight development saw major Iranian cross-Gulf attacks emerge. This is a serious escalation despite the White House having approached Tehran with a 15-point peace plan, delivered via Pakistan. The Iranians have clearly rejected it for now, and have instead launched a serious assault on Prince Sultan air base in Saudi Arabia Friday.
The Wall Street Journal details that “Twelve American troops–up from 10 previously reported–were wounded in an Iranian attack on the Prince Sultan air base in Saudi Arabia Friday, according to multiple U.S. and Arab officials.”
The AP in follow up issued higher figures: “Iran fired six ballistic missiles and 29 drones at Saudi Arabia’s Prince Sultan air base in a Friday attack that wounded at least 15 troops, including five seriously, according to the sources who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity. U.S. officials initially reported that at least 10 U.S. troops were injured, including two seriously wounded.”
Donald Trump was today warned that launching an amphibious operation to secure the Strait of Hormuz would be a ‘nightmare’.
General Sir Richard Shirreff, former deputy commander of NATO forces in Europe, raised fears that US troops could face drone attacks from ‘hundreds of miles inland’ if they landed on Iranian islands in the Strait.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that while the Iranians held the Strait, Trump ‘is losing’ against a battered but ‘angry, vengeful’ Tehran regime which still held away over the waterway.
The dire warnings come against the backdrop of a build-up of American land forces in the Gulf with new reports that some 10,000 US troops would now be deployed on top of Marine expeditionary forces.
But Sir Richard raised fears over the perils of an operation to seize control of the Strait of Hormuz even if it was attempt to run a one-off convoy through.
Asked to describe what US military action to take the Strait would amount to, the retired British Army general said: ‘it looks like another nightmare.
‘Frankly, it is about as difficult an operation as could conceive – an amphibious operation.
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