US Admiral Brad Cooper.Image: keystone
The US and Israel take stock as the war against Iran continues. Meanwhile, the Iranians manage to hit several US bases – the latest developments in the war.
03/04/2026, 07:3803/04/2026, 07:38
2000 targets attacked: USA gives figures for attacks
In the four days since the start of the Iran war, US forces say they have attacked almost 2,000 targets in the Islamic Republic. Within less than 100 hours, 17 Iranian warships were also destroyed, said the head of the US Regional Command for the Middle East (Centcom), Admiral Brad Cooper, in a video published on the X platform. The most operational Iranian submarine was among the targets attacked. It is about sinking the entire Iranian naval fleet, he reiterated.
Iran has been harassing international shipping for decades, Cooper said. Now there is not a single Iranian ship left in the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman. In addition, Iranian air defense systems were damaged and hundreds of ballistic missile launchers, drones and command centers were attacked. The US information could not be independently verified.
More than 50,000 soldiers, 200 fighter aircraft, 2 aircraft carriers and several bombers from the USA are now deployed in the region, said Cooper. More units are on the way. “These forces have massive striking power and represent the largest U.S. military presence in the Middle East in a generation,” the admiral said. The last time the United States assembled a huge military force in the Middle East was more than twenty years ago for the Iraq War.
“Widespread wave of attacks” on military installations in Iran
The Israeli armed forces also again attacked military facilities in Iran. The military said the “broad-based wave of attacks” targeted, among other things, launch pads and air defense systems. The Iranian news agency Tasnim reported explosions in the capital Tehran.
Iran, in turn, fired missiles at Israel, the Israeli armed forces said. But they were successfully intercepted, as the Times of Israel newspaper reported. So no one was injured.
Israel’s military reports 1,600 missions since the start of the war
Since the war began on Saturday, the Israeli armed forces reported over 1,600 air force missions. Around 4,000 projectiles were used, said Israeli military spokesman Effie Defrin. This means that the scale of the attacks is already greater than during the entire twelve-day war in June last year, in which Israel also shelled targets in Iran with American support. Since Saturday, Israel’s military has destroyed around 300 rocket launchers in Iran, the army said in a statement.
In retaliation for the Israeli-American attacks, Iran fired more than 500 ballistic missiles and more than 2,000 drones, according to the US military. Cooper accused Iran of indiscriminately attacking civilians – an accusation that the Iranian side also made.
At the start of the war on Saturday, Israel’s military estimated that Iran had around 2,500 ballistic missiles. In addition to the missiles fired by Iran, many missiles are likely to have been destroyed in bombing attacks by the Israelis and the US military since then.
Will the US air defense soon run out of ammunition?
Still, there are fears that American and Israeli forces, as well as their allies’ air defenses, could run out of interceptor missiles after days of shelling by Iran. The Iranians have huge stocks of comparatively cheap kamikaze drones and medium- and short-range missiles and could produce many more of them, warned US Senator Mark Kelly, a prominent member of the Armed Services Committee, according to CNN.
But the USA does not have “an unlimited supply” of ammunition, CNN quoted him as saying. At some point this will become a “mathematical problem” and raise the question of how the USA can increase its air defense ammunition again.
Iranian missile hits large US base in Qatar
A ballistic missile fired from Iran hit the Al-Udeid base in Qatar, which is also used by the US military. The Ministry of Defense in Doha said no one was injured, without providing any information about the exact location of the rocket’s impact or possible damage. A second ballistic missile was intercepted by air defense.
Al-Udeid is located on the outskirts of the Qatari capital Doha and is the largest US military base in the Middle East. Iran had already attacked the base, which is also used by Qatari and British forces, last year after the US bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities.
In addition to the attack on Al-Udeid, the Iranians are also said to have carried out several attacks on CIA buildings. According to US news channel CBS News, a US intelligence building was hit in both Iraq and Saudi Arabia. There are said to have been no injuries, only property damage. US officials did not comment.
The latest developments in the ticker:
Alleged Iranian spies caught in Qatar
Security authorities in Qatar also reported the arrest of 10 alleged spies from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards – Iran’s elite military force. Seven of them were tasked with collecting information about the Gulf state’s military infrastructure, the state news agency QNA reported. Three others were supposed to commit acts of sabotage and were trained in using drones. They admitted their connection to the Revolutionary Guards. (sda/dpa/con)