Bahrain Says Air Defences Destroyed 174 Missiles and 385 Drones Since Iran's Attacks Began

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The General Command of the Bahrain Defence Force announced that its air defence systems had intercepted and destroyed 174 ballistic missiles and 385 drones launched at the kingdom since Iranian attacks began on 28 February 2026. The figure, released roughly a month into the campaign and carried by the Bahrain News Agency, was among the first official attempts to quantify the scale of the aerial assault on the small Gulf state. Some regional outlets reported the drone total slightly higher, at 391, a discrepancy the Defence Force has not publicly explained.

The attacks form part of a wider regional conflict that opened on 28 February, when the United States and Israel launched an air campaign against Iran. Tehran responded by striking Gulf states that host American forces. Bahrain, an archipelago of roughly 1.5 million people off the eastern coast of Saudi Arabia, is home to the headquarters of the United States Navy’s Fifth Fleet at Naval Support Activity Bahrain, which made it an early and repeated target once the confrontation spread beyond Iranian territory.

In its statements, the Defence Force said Iran’s use of ballistic missiles and drones against civilian objects and private property amounted to what it called a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and the United Nations Charter. Bahrain’s foreign ministry separately described the strikes as a dangerous escalation. Iran, for its part, has consistently framed its launches as retaliation for American and Israeli operations and for the continued presence of foreign forces in the Gulf.

Alongside the military tally, Bahraini authorities issued civil defence guidance to the public. Residents were urged to keep outdoor movement to essential errands, to remain indoors during alerts and to stay well clear of any area where debris from intercepted munitions had come down. Officials warned that fragments from missiles and drones destroyed in flight can remain dangerous once they reach the ground, and asked the public not to gather at or film impact sites.

The tally of 174 missiles and 385 drones did not stand for long. Within weeks the Defence Force reported 188 missiles and 445 drones destroyed, and by early April the cumulative count had reached 194 missiles and 515 drones. A further update days later put the drone figure at 523. Read together, the successive announcements describe a campaign that shifted quickly away from concentrated missile salvos and towards far larger numbers of cheaper one-way attack drones.

Bahrain was not the only country under fire. Jordan said it destroyed 242 of the 262 missiles and drones aimed at the kingdom. Kuwait reported strikes on the Ali Al Salem air base and on Port Shuaiba, where casualties were reported among American and Kuwaiti personnel. The United Arab Emirates was also targeted. In response, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, the UAE and the United States issued a joint statement condemning the launches as indiscriminate.

The Arab League followed at the end of March with a condemnation of its own, backing the affected states’ right to defend themselves. The signatories of the joint statement said the strikes had endangered civilians, damaged infrastructure and violated the sovereignty of several countries. Iran has rejected that characterisation, arguing that installations hosting American forces are legitimate military targets in an active war.

A ceasefire reached later in the spring proved fragile. On 28 June, with the truce already under strain, Iran struck Bahrain and Kuwait again. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had fired ballistic missiles and drones at American positions, including naval facilities in Bahrain. Interceptions resumed almost immediately, and the Defence Force reported fresh engagements in the skies over the kingdom on several days in the middle and at the end of July.

The interception figures themselves are difficult to verify independently. Bahrain has not published a breakdown of which systems carried out the intercepts, how many munitions leaked through its defences, or what the defensive effort has cost. Air defence specialists have long noted the economic asymmetry involved in this kind of campaign: interceptor missiles typically cost far more than the drones they are fired at, which is one reason states facing sustained drone attack look for cheaper countermeasures such as guns, jamming and directed energy.

Despite the reported interception rate, officials have acknowledged that the attacks caused material damage to civilian property and to some infrastructure. Sirens have become a routine feature of daily life in Manama, and residents have repeatedly been told to shelter in place during alerts, a pattern that has now continued for months rather than days.

For Yemen and the wider region, the Gulf air war matters because it has pushed the conflict well beyond Iran’s borders and drawn in states that were not party to the original fighting. It has also focused on the Gulf’s air defence architecture and on how far the six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council can integrate early warning, radar coverage and interception into a genuinely shared system rather than a set of national ones.

Five months into the campaign, the tallies continue to climb, and the Bahrain Defence Force has not indicate when it expects the launches to stop. Each new announcement now reads less as a claim of success than as a measure of how long the confrontation has already lasted, and of how routine the sound of interceptors over the Gulf has become.