Donald Trump has suggested the United States’ ongoing war in Iran “Operation Epic Fury,” may last up to five weeks.
Since the first deadly U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iraq’s capital, Tehran, on Saturday, over 2,000 targets have been struck, according to U.S. Central Command’s Admiral Brad Cooper.
“We’ve had a very powerful impact,” Trump said Tuesday. “Virtually everything they had has been knocked out now. Their missile count is going down.”
Amid the onslaught, Iran has retaliated, carrying out a campaign of regional attacks, including thousands of one‑way drones and hundreds of missiles at a range of U.S. military sites and civilian locations in Israel, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates. On Wednesday, Iran’s mission to the UN claimed the U.S. had “sacrificed the interests of its own nation” to serve Israel.
Over 1,000 people have been killed in Iran so far, including reportedly 165 school girls, victims of an airstrike on a school close to a naval base. According to state media, over 20 schools have been hit in the campaign. On Wednesday, a U.S. military submarine carried out a strike on an Iranian warship off Sri Lanka’s coast, killing at least 80 people and leaving dozens more injured.
Meanwhile, at least six U.S. troops have been killed since Saturday – all of them in an Iranian drone strike in Kuwait.
The rapid outbreak of war and the extent of the damage to U.S. assets are reportedly causing concern in Washington as the Pentagon burns through stocks of precision weapons. According to The Washington Post, which spoke to three people familiar with the matter, the US military is potentially “days away” from having to prioritize which targets to intercept with its air defence missiles.
We take a look at the financial cost to the US of the war on day four.
Al-Udeid U.S. air base strike in Qatar
Believed to be the biggest financial hit to the U.S. so far, the $1.1 billion early warning radar system at Al-Udeid Air Base was hit in a missile strike by Iran on Saturday. Qatar confirmed that the radar was struck and damaged. The air base is the biggest military base in the Middle East and hosts thousands of U.S. service personnel.
Satellite imagery of the base taken on Sunday afternoon revealed that a tent surrounded by satellite dishes had been destroyed and some of the dishes most likely damaged, according to The New York Times.
On Tuesday, Iranian officials also claimed that two ballistic missiles were fired at the base, one was intercepted, the other struck without causing any casualties.
Bahrain radar dome strike
On Saturday, Iranian attack drones swooped on the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet headquarters in Manama, Bahrain, knocking out two radar domes.
These two satellite communication terminals are understood to play a significant role in providing high-capacity and real-time communications for the U.S. military.
According to reports, they are AN/GSC-52Bs, which cost around $20m to build and install.
F-15 fighter jets ‘friendly fire incident’
Three U.S. F1-5 fighter planes were shot down over Kuwait on Sunday, 1 March, in what U.S. Central Command described as a “friendly fire incident”.
“During active combat – that included attacks from Iranian aircraft, ballistic missiles, and drones – the U.S. Air Force fighter jets were mistakenly shot down by Kuwaiti air defenses,” Central Command said in a statement.
While aircrews bailed out and survived, the planes – each costing $100 million to replace – did not.
Iran claims to have hit US missile system at Al-Ruwais in the United Arab Emirates
On Monday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps issued a statement claiming to have hit and destroyed a U.S. missile defense radar in the United Arab Emirates.
The IRGC claims they successfully targeted an AN/TPY-2 radar, which makes up part of the THAAD anti-ballistic missile system, an attack estimated to cost the US $500m.
Drone strike on CIA base in Saudi Arabia
The Central Intelligence Agency’s station at the U.S. Embassy in the Saudi Arabian capital, Riyadh, was hit on Monday by a suspected Iranian drone, Reuters reports.
Saudi Arabia’s defense ministry said the embassy was hit by two drones, which resulted in a limited fire and some material damage.
