US military bases in Gulf 'useless' after Iranian strikes, experts say

US military bases in Gulf 'useless' after Iranian strikes, experts say Submitted by Yasmine El-Sabawi on Thu, 04/09/2026 - 18:15 One expert said it was 'highly unlikely' the US Fifth Fleet will ever return to the Gulf state of Bahrain US military personnel respond to a mock attack during a drill at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait City, Kuwait, on 4 May 2023 (Yasser al-Zayyat/AFP) Off At least a dozen US military sites across the Gulf region have been so badly damaged by Iran's retaliation to US and Israeli attacks that their presence now creates significantly more vulnerabilities than it does benefits, a slate of Middle East experts argued on Thursday. The original revelation about the state of the bases was first reported in The New York Times last month, in which they were described as "all but uninhabitable". The Trump administration has yet to acknowledge the extent of the damage sustained.