June 24, 2025
Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the Iranian regime has waged a sustained campaign of violence against the United States—killing U.S. troops, targeting diplomats and civilians, and plotting attacks on American soil. Using terror proxies such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces - together with ballistic missiles, terror financing, and clandestine activities - Tehran has built a global playbook of violence that spans four decades, all in its efforts to expel the U.S. and reshape the Middle East in its favor.
This threat is not just a thing of the past; it persists today. On June 23, Iran launched missiles at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, a forward operating base for U.S. Central Command, in response to the American attack on three key nuclear sites at Fordo, Natanz, and Isfahan. These strikes came amid a war between Israel and the Iranian regime aimed at neutralizing Tehran’s nuclear and missile capabilities that not only threaten the region, but the entire world. Qatari air defense systems intercepted the attack, and no injuries were reported—but the message from Tehran was unmistakable.
Shortly after Iran’s direct attack on U.S. forces, President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire. Iran quickly violated the truce by launching missiles at Israel, prompting Israeli retaliation. In the aftermath of the 12-day conflict, Tehran also vowed to rebuild its nuclear program following U.S. and Israeli strikes.
Here’s a breakdown of Iran’s decades-long campaign of attacks against U.S. soldiers and civilians—and why it remains a direct threat to American forces in the Middle East today.
The Origins of the Iranian Regime’s War on America (1979–1990s)
The Iranian regime’s anti-American campaign began with the 1979 seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, where 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days. In the 1980s, Hezbollah—funded, trained, and directed by Iran—carried out a wave of terror: the April 1983 suicide car bombing at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut that killed 63 people, and the October 1983 Marine barracks bombing in Beirut that killed 241 U.S. service personnel (at the time this was was the deadliest attack against U.S. Marines since the World War II battle over Iwo Jima in 1945), while a series of kidnappings, hijackings, and executions—including the torture and murder of of CIA Beirut station chief William Buckley in 1984—terrorized Americans abroad. Beginning in the 1990s, the Iranian-backed Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad also carried out a wave of terror in Israel that included the deaths of many Americans, including a Hamas bus bomb in Jerusalem in 1996 that killed three Americans and the 2001 Sbarro pizzeria bombing in Jerusalem that killed three Americans, 15 in total.
The Khobar Towers bombing on June 25, 1996, was carried out by Hezbollah al-Hejaz, a Saudi-based militant group with strong ties to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The attack involved a massive truck bomb detonated near a housing complex for U.S. Air Force personnel in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, killing 19 American airmen and injuring nearly 500 others. A forensic investigation by the FBI determined direct Iranian responsibility for the bombing.
The Iranian Regime’s Connection to Al Qaeda and 9/11
According to the 9/11 Commission, while there is no evidence that the Iranian regime was aware of the 9/11 attacks in advance, there is strong evidence that the regime facilitated the transit of Al Qaeda members in and out of Afghanistan before and after the attacks. It is also clear that the Iranian regime and Hezbollah maintained close contact with Al Qaeda, with the latter providing advice and training.
Iraq and Afghanistan: Iranian Regime’s Proxy War on U.S. Troops (2000s–2010s)
During the Iraq war between 2003 and 2011, Iran orchestrated elements of the lethal insurgency against U.S. and Coalition forces in Iraq through a number of militias armed and trained by Iran, such as Kataib Hezbollah and Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq. (Note: The popular mobilization forces were activated via the call of Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani to fight ISIS in 2014-15. They included a number of Iranian-backed Shia militias that had already been fighting the U.S. for over a decade.)
The U.S. Department of Defense has said that Iran was responsible for at least 608 American troop deaths in Iraq between 2003 and 2011, some 17% of all U.S. service personnel deaths in that time period. Iran trained and armed proxy fighters with advanced weapons—including deadly explosively formed penetrators (EFPs)—used to penetrate armor in order to kill and injure U.S. troops.
Meanwhile, in Afghanistan, Iran quietly provided weapons, funding, and a haven to select Taliban factions, despite their ideological differences, as part of a broader strategy to undermine U.S. and NATO forces. Intelligence reports and battlefield recoveries revealed Iranian-made arms—including rifles, mortars, and roadside bomb components—had reached insurgent groups, contributing to deadly attacks on coalition troops, especially in western Afghanistan near the Iranian border.
Escalation: Drones, Missiles, and Proxy Strikes (2019–Present)
Following the January 2020 U.S. drone strike that killed IRGC Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani, Iran responded by launching more than a dozen ballistic missiles at Ain al-Asad Air Base in western Iraq. Over 100 U.S. service members stationed at that air base suffered traumatic brain injuries in the attack. In the years since, Iranian-backed Popular Mobilization Forces such as Kataib Hezbollah, Harakat al-Nujaba, and Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq have carried out over 180 rocket, missile, and drone attacks targeting U.S. military personnel in Iraq, Syria, and Jordan.
Key incidents include:
- March 23, 2023: An Iranian drone struck a U.S. base near Hasakah, Syria, killing one American contractor and wounding five U.S. troops.
- January 28, 2024: Kataib Hezbollah, an Iranian regime-backed terror group, lauched a drone strike on Tower 22, a U.S. logistics post in northeastern Jordan, killing three American soldiers and injuring more than 40 others.
On October 7, 2023, the Iranian-backed terror group Hamas launched an unprecedented massacre against Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking over 250 hostages. Among the victims were more than 40 Americans. Several U.S. citizens were also taken hostage — including Itay Chen, Gad Haggai, Judy Weinstein Haggai, and Hersh Goldberg-Polin — all of whom were later confirmed murdered by Hamas.
These incidents illustrate how the Iranian regime continues to wage asymmetric warfare against U.S. personnel across the region through their terror proxies in Iraq and Syria as well in the Palestinian territories.
Reaching U.S. Soil: Assassinations and Incitement
The Iranian regime’s global campaign has also targeted those in the United States, including Americans. In 2022, author Salman Rushdie was stabbed repeatedly and nearly killed in New York after decades of incitement stemming from Iran’s 1989 fatwa for Rushdie’s alleged blasphemy. That same year, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) charged an IRGC operative for plotting to assassinate former National Security Advisor John Bolton and former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. In 2024, the DOJ unveiled a plot by an Iranian national and American accomplices to assassinate President Donald Trump, who was running for re-election at the time. And in 2025, two Iranian agents were convicted of a plot to kidnap and kill Iranian-American journalist and activist Masih Alinejad in New York.
How does Iran threaten U.S. Bases in the Middle East today?
The United States maintains a network of military bases across the Middle East to combat terrorism, support allies, and protect global energy routes. About 40,000 U.S. troops are deployed regionally, including roughly 2,500 in Iraq and Syria at key sites like Al-Asad, Erbil, and Ain al-Tanf, focused on containing ISIS remnants. Larger hubs—such as Al Udeid in Qatar (U.S. Central Command Forward), Camp Arifjan in Kuwait, Al Dhafra in the UAE, and bases in Jordan—serve as vital command, airpower, and logistics centers. The U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet in Bahrain secures critical waterways like the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea, where threats from Iranian naval forces and Houthi attacks on commercial shipping have escalated.
Tehran views this U.S. presence as a threat to its regional ambitions and targets American forces through the Popular Mobilization Forces in Iraq and the Houthis in Yemen. These groups have launched hundreds of drone, rocket, and missile attacks—especially in Iraq, Syria, and Jordan.
Today, even the region’s most fortified bases lie within reach of Iran’s advanced missile and drone arsenal, including strikes launched directly from Iranian territory as seen in the June 23 direct attack on the U.S. base in Qatar. At sea, Iran and its Houthi allies have turned the Red Sea and Gulf waterways into conflict zones, threatening commercial shipping and U.S. naval vessels. Though the U.S. reached a fragile ceasefire with the Houthis in May following U.S. airstrikes, the broader threat remains. Iran is not merely posturing—it is systematically targeting U.S. forces in a long-term effort to expel the U.S. and reshape the Middle East in its favor.
