Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched a strike against a US air base in Kuwait early on May 28, marking a sharp escalation in a conflict that has simmered since late February and sent shockwaves through global markets, crypto included.
The target was Ali Al-Salem, a key American military installation in Kuwait. The IRGC said the attack was retaliation for recent US airstrikes near Bandar Abbas airport and the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway that functions as the world’s most important oil chokepoint.
What happened and why it matters
The strike landed at 4:50 a.m. local time. The US had characterized its own earlier military actions as defensive, responding to threats from Iranian drones targeting American forces operating in the Strait of Hormuz.
A fragile ceasefire had been holding for roughly three months before this. That ceasefire emerged from a broader conflict rooted in US and Israeli strikes against Iranian assets that began in late February 2026. The attack on Ali Al-Salem effectively shattered whatever was left of that arrangement.
