Kuwait, one of the Arab countries in the Persian Gulf region, hosts severalUS militarybases. Since the US andIsraelattackedIranon February 28, Iran has struck targets in Kuwait and other Gulf countries with missiles anddrones, causingsevere damageto both military sites and oil and port infrastructure. The Iranian regime says these countries are being used to launch attacks on Iranian soil. In letters sent to the United Nations on March 24, Irans ambassador to the UN Amir Saeid Iravaniaccused Kuwaitof allowing the planning, preparation, equipping and execution ofmilitaryattacks against Iran.

Kuwait has denied it. On March 9, Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al Sabah, theEmir of Kuwait,said: We have not allowed our land, our skies, or our shores to be used for anymilitaryactivity against [Iran].

Videos show at least 13 missiles fired from Kuwaiti soil

However, on March 24, multiple videos posted on social networks showed at least 13 missiles being fired from a location inside Kuwait. Most of these videos were recorded from Umm Qasr inIraq, a town on the border with Kuwait. The videos, filmed pointing south, showed missiles being launched from the Kuwaiti side of the border.

One of the videos, 1 minute 30 seconds long, captures an extended sequence in which 13 missiles are seen being fired. The FRANCE 24 Observers digitalinvestigationteam synchronised this video with other videos published on social media, each documenting different moments of the same incident. In the videos, the sound of the launches arrives around 15 seconds after the launches are visible.

By analysing the position of the cameras and their angle towards oil infrastructure inside Kuwaiti territory, and by estimating the distance between the cameras and the launch zone, the Observers team was able to identify a zone from which more than a dozen missiles were fired.

The missiles were fired from the Kuwaiti desert, east of the town of Abdali, in the vicinity of oil-drilling towers.

A second series of launches was recorded in the same zone on the night of March 31 to April 1. Once again, multiple videos were filmed from the Iraqi side of the border, in one case from an Iraqi tugboat moored offshore 50 km east of Umm Qasr.

Launches identified as US-made GMLRS missiles

The US Central Commandacknowledgesusing mobile missile launchers known as HIMARS in its operation against Iran, dubbed Epic Fury. CENTCOM has publishedimagesof the truck-mounted missile launchers launching attacks from deserts in the region, but has not identified the countries. Individual National Guard units, however, have posted images showing HIMARS deployedinside Kuwait.

The high-precision platform can fire either six GMLRS missiles, with a range of 70 km, or a single ATACMS missile with a range of up to 300 km. The HIMARS is not operated by the Kuwaiti army.

Frederik Coghe, aweaponssystems and ballistics expert at the Royal Military Academy in Brussels, said the missiles seen in the March 24 images are consistent with the HIMARS system.

The March 24 and March 31 missile launches were in a zone about 55 km north-west of Camp Buehring, a US military base in Kuwait. During the Iran war, the camp has served as a base for the 42nd Infantry Division of the US Army National Guard, from New York State. AHIMARS-equipped unitfrom the Wisconsin National Guard iscurrently operatingin Kuwait, and other National Guard units havepreviouslyused HIMARS at Camp Buehring.

FRANCE 24 contacted both the Kuwaiti authorities and the United States Central Command (CENTCOM). Kuwaiti officials did not respond to our inquiries, while CENTCOM said it had no comment on the matter.

March 24 missile impacts filmed in Iran

On March 24, the same day that residents of the Iraqi town of Umm Qasr filmed missiles being launched from the Kuwaiti desert, residents close to Iraqs northern border with Iran filmed a series of explosions at an Iranian border crossing called Shalamcheh, approximately 60 km from the launch zone in Kuwait.

At least seven explosions can be seen in these videos. The intervals between the explosions in Iran match the intervals between the launches recorded in Kuwait, suggesting that the missiles fired from Kuwaiti territory landed inside Iran. A GMLRS missile travelling at a speed of Mach 2 would take approximately 90 seconds to cover the 60 km between the launch zone in Kuwait and the border crossing in Iran. Lockheed Martin, the missiles US-based manufacturer, says standard models have arange of 70 kilometres.

Coghe, after analysing videos of the impacts in Shalamcheh, said the explosions are consistent with GMLRS munitions being fired from Kuwait on the same day:

Satellite images taken on March 30 show apparent damage to warehouses in Shalamcheh.

via GIPHY

Iranian state media report missile damage at a shipyard on March 31

Iranian state mediareported that a civilian shipbuilding and repair facility near the city of Khorramshahr was hit by US missiles on the night of March 31. The site is located approximately 65 km from the launch area in Kuwait.

State media sites said the facility was hit by 44 missiles and that it was not used for military purposes. It was impossible to independently verify what the shipyard is used for or by what missiles it was targeted.

FRANCE 24 contacted both the Kuwaiti authorities and United States Central Command (CENTCOM). Kuwaiti officials did not respond to our inquiries, while CENTCOM said it had no comment on the matter.

The New York Times on March 13 identifiedHIMARS missile launches from Bahrain. The Bahraini government told the newspaper thatBahrainhas not participated in any offensive operations while CENTCOM declined to comment.

Since the beginning of the US-Israeli coalition strikes on Iran on February 28, Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has targeted military sites and infrastructure across several Arab countries in the Persian Gulf region, including Kuwait. On April 1, Iran struck the Kuwaiti crude oil tanker Al-Salmi. Earlier attacks targeted a power and water desalination plant on March 30, Kuwaits main port of Shuwaikh on March 27, and fuel storage tanks at Kuwait International Airport on March 25.

Kuwaits Ali Al-Salem Air Base and Camp Buehring have also been heavily targeted during these Iranian strikes.

On March 16, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation ofhuman rightsin Iranreferred to these Iranian attacks as retaliatory strikes, provoking a reaction from Kuwaits ambassador to the UN, Nasser Al-Hayen, who warned that portraying the attacks as retaliatory could inadvertently justify Irans aggression against Kuwait and other countries in the region.

Originally published on France24