Photos show extensive damage to US Middle East bases
U.S. bases in the Middle East have suffered severe damage as a result of Iranian attacks, images and videos obtained by ABC News show, as the Pentagon surveys the costs of a war the U.S. began more than six months ago.
The images, which were recently obtained by ABC News but capture moments in time across the conflict, show damage to buildings and an aircraft at three U.S. bases in Kuwait and a Saudi base that houses U.S. assets, some of which were evacuated amid the danger.
CBS News reported earlier this week on widespread damage to U.S. bases in the region.
The Pentagon has not provided public information explaining the extent of the damage done by Iranian attacks to U.S. bases in the region in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman, and Jordan, but satellite imagery has consistently captured the impact of strikes. The Defense Department also took preemptive measures to move personnel from bases vulnerable to Iranian attacks before the war.
A senior U.S. service member told ABC News that the damage to the facilities would take “decades” to repair.
"I believe the American people are unaware of the extent of the damage that American bases are taking in [the Middle East] right now due to the conflict with Iran,” the service member, who was granted anonymity, told ABC News.
"These bases have been irreparably damaged. And if we choose to rebuild them, it's going to be a decades long undertaking,” the service member said. “Like, this is not something that's going to be fixed in six months. We're talking about years and years of construction and rebuilding in order to reestablish what's been destroyed."
The Pentagon declined to comment to ABC News.
Since the war started on Feb. 28, 18 service members have been killed and 824 wounded, according to the Defense Department.
A Pentagon inspector general report found that “hundreds of buildings and structures” had been damaged at American posts across the region.
The internal government watchdog, which released its report Monday, estimated the cost of the war at $33 billion, though an assessment from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated the cost at $38 billion. The Pentagon has consistently downplayed Iran’s offensive ability in the war.
The deadliest Iranian attack of the war came on its second day, when six U.S. soldiers were killed in Port Shuaiba in Kuwait. The soldiers, who had been moved from another location to Port Shuaiba to better protect them, were at a largely unfortified location, surrounded only by six-foot concrete walls.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said that the U.S. makes force protection its top priority, but that Iran would be able to penetrate defenses at times.
“Every once in a while you might have one, unfortunately we call it a ‘squirter,’ that makes its way through,” he said when asked about the Kuwait strike in March. “And in that particular case, it happened to hit a tactical operation center that was fortified, but these are powerful weapons.”
Among the photos shared with ABC News is what appears to be an E-3 Sentry aircraft, damaged in late March, on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. The E-3 is a surveillance aircraft that is deployed for early warning and is valued at $270 million.
Fighting between the U.S. and Iran has been intermittent since an April ceasefire ended full-scale conflict, which included Israeli forces.
The U.S. and Iranian militaries have continued to trade strikes for days or weeks at a time, with the U.S. largely striking targets along the coastline of the Strait of Hormuz and Iran firing at U.S. bases primarily in Jordan, Bahrain, Iraq, and Qatar.
Three U.S. service members in Jordan, and one in Iraq, were killed in July by Iranian attacks.
The service member who spoke to ABC News said the Pentagon is not being transparent about ongoing warfare.
"It's being kept a secret, and we're acting like it's no big deal, but, you know, there are drone strikes and ballistic missile strikes actively landing on bases every day," the service member said.
