Senate Democrats say Pentagon wasn't ready for Iranian retaliation on US troops
A group of Senate Democrats are pressing the Pentagon over what they describe as failures to protect U.S. troops against retaliatory strikes from Iran.
In a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Mark Kelly of Arizona, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut -- all members of the Senate Armed Services Committee -- argue the Pentagon did not take "basic precautions" ahead of expected Iranian retaliation after the U.S. and Israel launched a war against the regime in late February.
The trio cited the first American casualties in the conflict, a group of six soldiers in Kuwait, which exposed Iran’s ability to target and strike U.S. service members with attack drones.
The U.S. approach suffered from a lack of "plans to prevent possible harm from foreseeable attacks," the senators argued, "like retaliation with drone strikes." ABC News reported the facility in Kuwait that was targeted by Iranian drones was largely unfortified, surrounded by six-foot concrete walls, details the lawmakers seized on to underscore what they view as a broad lapse in protection from attack.
"We are concerned that this is part of a larger pattern in which this administration has failed to protect Americans in the region from Iranian retaliation," they wrote.
Warren said in a statement to ABC News that Hegseth "must be held accountable."
"Hegseth’s leadership has been one betrayal after another," she said.
ABC News has reached out to the Department of Defense for comment.
For decades, U.S. forces in the Middle East have operated out of buildings that are repurposed shipping containers or structures akin to mobile trailers that sit above ground.
The structure where the six troops were killed was effectively a large trailer. Concrete walls like the ones surrounding the Army facility in Kuwait were typical during the Global War on Terror, built to blunt bullets, rockets, mortars and ground-level blasts -- but not capable of defending against direct aerial strikes from drones.
After the March 1 drone attack, the U.S. had prepared counter-drone operations for the threat, according to Hegseth.
"We have pushed every counter [drone] system possible forward sparing no expense or capability," Hegseth told reporters at the time. "This does not mean we can stop everything, but we ensured … the maximum possible defense."
The senators are demanding that Hegseth answer whether the six-feet walls were deemed to be sufficient for force protection, or whether officials at the installation requested increased capabilities before the outbreak of the war.
In recent years, Pentagon planners have been looking to adopt base defenses against drone attacks, as they have become the defining weapons of the Ukraine war. An internal Pentagon investigation in January found there are critical gaps in training across the military in countering drones.
A separate internal investigation following the Iranian-backed attack on Tower 22 in Jordan in January 2024 cited inadequate infrastructure that was not built to withstand an air attack, according to records reviewed by ABC News. Three U.S. troops were killed in that attack.
The senators are asking the defense secretary whether there were known problems with the installation's early-warning systems, which could have allowed troops to avert incoming danger. “Accounts from survivors and other officials with knowledge of the situation make clear that the risks to service members in the region were known,” the senators wrote, citing press reports. “[B]ut leadership at DoD failed to take steps to prevent harm that could come from Iran’s retaliation,” they said.
Since the start of the war, the Pentagon has invested over $300 billion into one-way attack drones and tools to defend against Iran.
Thirteen U.S. service members have been killed in the conflict with Iran and some 400 have been injured.
