Iran Claims Drone Strikes on Al Minhad Air Base, UAE Denies Its Base Was Targeted

Iran's army said early on Monday, August 31, 2026, that it had attacked Al Minhad Air Base in the United Arab Emirates with drones. The Emirati defense ministry denied hours later that the base had been targeted, while confirming that its air force had engaged a drone approaching from Iran over the country's territorial waters.

The claim was carried by Iranian state media, which quoted an army statement saying that dozens of drones had been directed at positions where US forces and helicopters are stationed at the base. Tehran presented the operation as retaliation for the killing of Revolutionary Guard members and Iranian civilians on Larak Island, in the Strait of Hormuz, the day before.

The UAE defense ministry rejected the account of a strike on the base and said the incident involved a single drone engaged over territorial waters. The foreign ministry condemned it as a dangerous escalation and a violation of the country's sovereignty. No independent confirmation of damage at Al Minhad has emerged, and neither US Central Command nor the Australian Defence Force, which runs its regional headquarters from the base, has reported casualties.

Separately, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had struck two air bases in Jordan with ballistic missiles and drones, naming King Hussein Air Base and Al Azraq — the Iranian designation for Muwaffaq Salti Air Base, which hosts the US Air Force's 407th Air Expeditionary Group alongside Royal Jordanian fighter squadrons. The IRGC said the strikes destroyed technical and repair infrastructure. The Jordanian military said it had intercepted eight missiles that entered the kingdom's airspace at dawn, and issued no damage report.

Both operations followed a US strike on Larak Island on Sunday. Central Command described it as limited, precise action against IRGC minelaying forces, saying it destroyed two rocket launchers preparing to fire missiles carrying naval mines toward the strait.

Al Minhad sits 24 km south of Dubai and is operated by the United Arab Emirates Air Force, whose 76 F-16E/F Block 60 fighters and 59 Mirage 2000-9 aircraft make it the 27th-ranked military in the global military power ranking. Its 3,932-metre runway has made it the coalition logistics hub of the Gulf for two decades: it is the headquarters of Australia's Joint Task Force 633 at Camp Baird, was Canada's Camp Mirage, and housed the RAF's No. 906 Expeditionary Air Wing.

That role has already made it a target twice in the 2026 Iran conflict. A drone reached the perimeter on the opening night of the war in late February without damaging Australian facilities. On March 18 a projectile struck a road outside the base and the resulting fire damaged an accommodation block and a medical facility; Australia's prime minister called the damage minor and said none of the more than 100 Australian personnel there had been hurt.

Jordan, ranked 53rd with 100,500 active personnel, flies 61 F-16A/B from a network of six active air bases, of which Muwaffaq Salti is the one built around a US tenant unit. King Hussein Air Base, at Mafraq, is primarily a Royal Jordanian Air Force training field.

A ceasefire brokered by Pakistan collapsed in July, and strikes have continued since. Whether Monday's exchange marks a further widening of the war onto Gulf states that have stayed out of the fighting will depend on the damage assessments neither Amman nor Abu Dhabi has yet published.