US says it has destroyed Iran missile capacity: How is Iran still shooting?

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Their navy assessed combat ineffective. Complete and total aerial dominance over Iran,” the White House said on Saturday. “Operation Epic Fury is yielding massive results,” it said in reference to the war launched by Israel and the US on February 28.

On Sunday, President Donald Trump said US forces had decimated Iran’s drone manufacturing capacity. Still, on Monday afternoon, Qatar announced it had intercepted the latest in a series of missiles fired from Iran towards the country. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain also issued alerts.

A missile landed on a car in Abu Dhabi, killing a person. So are Iran’s missile capabilities severely reduced? And how is it still firing projectiles at its neighbours and Israel?

Indeed, the number of retaliatory missiles and drones that Iran has fired towards Gulf countries, Israel and other nations in the region has seen a steep decline since the start of the war. In the first 24 hours of the conflict, Iran had fired 167 missiles (ballistic and cruise) and 541 drones at the United Arab Emirates, for instance. By contrast, on day 15 of the conflict, it had shot four missiles and six drones, according to a tally compiled by Al Jazeera based on the emirate’s Defence Ministry statements.

The barrage against Israel has also decreased, from nearly 100 projectiles over the first two days to a single-digit number in the past few days, according to Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies. Last week, the Pentagon said missile launches were down 90 percent from the first day of fighting and drone attacks were down by 86 percent. Iran has the largest inventory of ballistic missiles in the region, the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence assessed in 2022.