Kuwait city: that is what appears in a video shared on Telegram on July 16, documenting an Iranian strike on Kuwait. The footage was recorded from the Iraqi border city of Umm Qasr, a location confirmed by the FRANCE 24 Observers team. Since the conflict began on February 28, Iran has repeatedly responded to US and Israeli attacks by targeting US military sites in allied states across the Persian Gulf region: Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Jordan, all of which host US bases.According to France24.com, images documenting these strikes are often fleeting and filmed from a distance. Across the region, authorities have pursued repressive policies against anyone documenting the impact of Tehran's attacks. From the first days of the war, residents, journalists, tourists, and expatriates have faced a severe crackdown. More than 1,000 people have been arrested across these US-allied states, as reported by Amnesty International.Mahmoud Shalaby, a regional researcher at Amnesty I nternational, stated that since the beginning of the war, Arab countries across the Gulf have issued blanket warnings instructing citizens and residents not to film or share images of Iranian attacks. Gulf countries have used the war as a pretext to expand restrictions on freedom of expression that were already in place before the conflict. For example, between March and May, more than 300 people were arrested in Bahrain alone, with at least 34 people sentenced to prison terms for sharing a photograph or video on Instagram.In Kuwait, over 200 people received either suspended sentences or prison terms between April and May. In the UAE, authorities announced the arrest of 375 people in March, conducting door-to-door searches and inspecting phones in areas where drones had struck. Another aspect of the crackdown in Kuwait and Bahrain is the stripping of citizenship. Bahrain revoked the citizenship of 69 people, while Kuwait stripped over 1,000 people of their citizenship.Shalaby emphasized that the measures taken by Gulf states go far beyond international human rights standards. The crackdown undermines the ability of media and researchers to document these attacks. Countries in the region have claimed to intercept the attacks, despite evidence to the contrary, and the US has prohibited satellite-imagery companies from providing updated images of these countries.Available imagery contradicts many official claims that Iranian attacks were intercepted. For instance, after an Iranian drone attack on Bahrain on June 10, the Bahraini government claimed it had intercepted several aerial attacks, but satellite images showed evidence of a strike on a US radar installation. European Sentinel-2 satellite images also showed a direct hit on Al Udeid, a US military base in Qatar.The Gulf states aim to protect their image as safe havens, concealing the impact of the attacks to counter arguments against the presence of US military bases. Arab countries, along with the Trump administration, have been reported to deny or min imize the extent of Iranian attacks on their territory.
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