Image source, All J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
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- Author, Writing
- Author’s title, BBC News World
The United States has an important military force in the Middle East, with troops in more than a dozen countries and ships deployed in the waters of the region.
These bases currently house about 40,000 people, including military and civilians, in addition to air defense systems, combat planes and war ships.
After the attack of the United States to three nuclear facilities in Iran, these bases have become the potential objective of Iranian reprisals, whose government already warned that “all the options” be reserved to respond.
The American presence in the area, which during the Iraq or Afghanistan wars came to have more than 160,000 deployed soldiers, had been reinforced last year by tensions between Israel and Iran and to respond to the continuous attacks of the hutis of Yemen to commercial and military ships in the Red Sea.
But in recent days, in anticipation of attacks and to protect staff in case of a large -scale response from Tehran, the United States had requested the voluntary departure of military dependents of the regional bases.
In total, the US has military facilities in at least 19 locations in the area, eight of them considered permanent by many regional analysts: Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar and Syria.
According to the Independent Institute for Research Council on Foreign Relations.
Next we explain how the main US bases are in the area, all of them under the central command of the US army (Centcom).
Bahrain
This little kingdom houses the headquarters of the fifth fleet of the United States Navy, responsible for the US Naval Forces in the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, the Arabic Sea, and the Costa de Africa del Este towards the South to Kenya.
The facilities are known as Naval Support Activity Bahrain (Bahrain Naval Support Activity), and also house the headquarters of the Central Command of the US Naval Forces.
Some 9,000 US military are deployed in this island country.
Several ships of the American Navy are based in the port of Bahréin, which has very deep waters that allow the entry of large -draft ships, such as UUS Carl Vinson and others.
Among them there are four antiminas ships and two logistic support ships. The American coastal guard also has ships in the country, including six fast response boats, according to AFP.
Kuwait
Kuwait is one of the countries that has the most US military bases in the region.
Among them is the Arifjan camp, headquarters of the Advanced Headquarters of the American Army Centcom component. This installation serves as an operational and logistics nucleus for the US Armed Forces in the Middle East, with large material reserves to supply the different operations.
The Ali Al-Salem Air Base is also found in Kuwait, which houses the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing, “the main air transport center and gateway for the deployment of the power to combat the joint and coalition forces in the region,” according to AFP.
In addition, the United States also has drones, including MQ-9 Reaper, in Kuwait.
Only at the Arifjan camp and the Air Basse Ali al Salem, the US Army has deployed about 13,500 military, according to the US State Department.
Image source, Reuters
Qatar
The base of Al Udeid, in Qatar, is the largest in the entire region, houses an advanced headquarters of the United States Central Command (Centcom), as well as its Air Forces.
The UDEID has been fundamental for the operations that the United States Army has carried out in the past in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.
There is also deployed the 379th Wing Wing of the US Air Force.
President Donald Trump visited her last May 15 during the tour she made through the East.
In recent days, Washington had removed dozens of aircraft from Al Udeid, as they showed satellite images, which made it suspect that they had moved them to protect them from possible Iranian attacks in response by an American intervention.
From a quarantine aircraft, including Hercules C-130 transport and recognition planes, which could be seen in images published by Planet Labs on June 5, there were only three aircraft two weeks later, according to AFP, which could analyze the images.
In Qatar, about 10,000 American soldiers are deployed.
United Arab Emirates
The US army has the Air Base Al Dhafra, in the United Arab Emirates (EAU), a strategic base dedicated to recognition, intelligence collection and support for air operations.
The base houses the US 380 expeditionary wing, a force composed of 10 aircraft squads and also includes drones such as MQ-9 Reapers.
Image source, United States Air Force via EPA
Irak
The United States had up to 160,000 soldiers deployed in Iraq in more than 500 bases in the country during the invasion that overthrew Sadam Hussein and lasted from 2003 to 2001.
Today, however, there are some 2,500 US military in the country, and Washington negotiates with the Baghdad government its progressive retirement.
These military are part of the international coalition that fights the Islamic state jihadist group, and do so mainly from two air bases, that of Al Asad and Erbil’s, in the Iraqi Kurdistan.
These bases, as well as other minors that remain open in the country, have been the objective of attacks by Iran’s allied groups since the war in Gaza began in October 2023.
Syria
The military presence of the United States in Syria is also linked to the fight against the Islamic State, which emerged from the civil war that broke out in 2011 in the country and that ended up occupying great procions of territory in Syria and Iraq.
The US Army has about 2,000 military in several bases in the country, who work with local security forces to prevent a resurgence of the jihadist group.
In June Washington announced that it would reduce the number of military bases that operate in the country from eight to one, and that they would change their policies with respect to Syria “because none has worked.”
Trump decided to lift Syria the sanctions unexpectedly last May, and his government has been willing to talk with the new de facto leader of the country, Ahmed Sharaa, whose militia managed to overthrow Bashar Al Assad at the end of 2024.
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