The statement, released on Friday, urged residents to immediately leave areas where American forces are stationed to avoid harm, stating that the US and Israeli militaries are hiding behind civilians and using noncombatants as human shields.

“The cowardly American-Zionist forces, who lack the courage and ability to defend their own military bases, out of fear of the fire of the warriors of Islam, are attempting to use civilian locations and innocent people as human shields,” the statement said.

“Since we are obliged to eliminate the terrorist forces of America and the usurping regime wherever we find them, as they recklessly engage in the killing of Iranian civilians and the assassination of key figures, we advise that you urgently leave the locations of American forces so that no harm comes to you.”

The Iranian warning comes shortly after a report by The New York Times revealed that US military across West Asia is facing mounting strain after sustained Iranian strikes rendered key American bases increasingly uninhabitable, forcing troops to disperse and operate from "improvised" locations across the region.

According to the newspaper, the shift has effectively transformed parts of the US-Israeli terrorist war campaign into a remote operation, with personnel working away from traditional command centers.

Prior to the outbreak of war, approximately 40,000 US troops were stationed across West Asia. Thousands have since been redeployed, some as far as Europe, while others remain in the region but no longer operate from established bases.

According to media reports, US forces have established a presence at civilian sites across the region, including a logistics base near Beirut's old airport and advisory operations at Damascus' Republic Palace, the Four Seasons, and Sheraton hotels.

US Marines were reportedly moved this week to Djibouti International Airport via Istanbul and Sofia.

On Thursday, Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned hotels in Persian Gulf Arab countries against accepting US military personnel fleeing their bases and using civilian sites as cover.

"From the outset of this war, US soldiers fled military bases in the GCC (Persian Gulf Cooperation Council) to hide in hotels and offices. They use GCC citizens as human shields," Araghchi wrote on the social media platform X.

He compared the situation to hotels in the United States, which he said deny bookings to officers who may endanger customers, and urged Persian Gulf hotels to adopt the same practice.

Iran has struck 104 American and regional bases, according to a rough analysis of geolocated strikes by Fabian Hinz, an open-source analyst.

American satellite firms have delayed the release of imagery by at least 14 days, making it hard to assess the damage, British daily the Telegraph reported.

Of all the bases, Ali Al Salem in Kuwait has suffered most hits – a total of 23 – according to Hinz. Camp Arifjan and Camp Buehring follow, with 17 and six geolocated strikes respectively.

Satellite imagery from these three bases, the Telegraph wrote, shows damage to hangars, communications infrastructure, satellite equipment, fuel stores, and – following a strike on Ali Al Salem on Wednesday – a large warehouse.

Iran has hit bases in the UAE 17 times, Bahrain 16 times, Iraq seven times, Qatar six times, Saudi Arabia six times and Jordan twice, according to Hinz’s “conservative” assessment as of Wednesday.

A study by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies estimated that attacks in the first days of the war caused at least $800 million of damage, with hits on an American THAAD (Terminal high altitude area defense) radar in Jordan and other infrastructure elsewhere in the region.

In Saudi Arabia, at the Prince Sultan Air Base, satellite imagery shows a hangar with a pitched roof reduced to rubble, the Telegraph reported.

In Qatar, at Al Udeid Air Base – the largest American base in the Middle East – imagery shows the destruction of multiple antennae and satellite arrays.

In the UAE, at Al Dhafra Air Base, a large hole has been ploughed through a building apparently used to house troops, with a large blast radius of dust.

Iranian sources said the attack was carried out by a Khorramshahr-4 missile, the most advanced in Iran’s arsenal.

On Monday, CENTCOM which is responsible for American forces in West Asia put out an urgent call for contractors to deliver transportable hardened bunkers to Jordan.

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has targeted radar and air defense facilities in an attempt to “blind” Washington.

Iran has struck four sites hosting components for the American-made THAAD system, which tracks and intercepts incoming missiles, Hinz said.

An early-warning radar in Qatar and other radar installations across the region were also hit. “That may have made it harder to intercept Iranian missiles,” the British paper said.

More Iranian launches are penetrating US and Israeli air defenses which face acute shortages of interceptor missiles, according to a study published on Wednesday by the Royal United Services Institute think tank.

Kuwait is the country in the region that has been hit most, with 50 confirmed impacts, according to Hinz.