Pictures show extensive damage to American bases in the Arab region as a result of Iranian strikes

CBS, the American partner of the BBC, obtained images showing extensive damage to several American sites in the Arab region as a result of Iranian strikes.

The photos, provided by serving military personnel, show a radar plane with its fuselage split, trailers completely destroyed and buildings with extensive damage.

The undated photos were taken at US bases and sites in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

One of the soldiers, whose name was not revealed by CBS, said: “This is serious damage to our bases that was not reported to the American public.”

He added: "We stand idly by, as if we are closing our eyes and being punched in the face."

The White House referred the BBC to US Central Command, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The photos, which the BBC was unable to independently verify, were published a day after the issuance of a report by the Pentagon’s oversight body, which confirmed that hundreds of buildings and facilities at American bases in the Arab region were damaged and destroyed as a result of Iranian attacks.

One of the pictures showed a destroyed Boeing E-3 Sentry plane at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. It had split in half and its rear section had turned into a mass of twisted and intertwined metal.

Although the image is undated, the BBC's verification team previously documented a similar image in March, which appears to be of the same radar plane.

Boeing E-3 AWACS aircraft are used to monitor and track potential targets from long distances, and provide early warning of potential threats.

At the time, a US official told Reuters that 12 US soldiers were injured, two of them seriously, in an Iranian attack on the air base.

Two undated photos, said to have been taken at Camp Puring in Kuwait, show crushed trailers and a large tent-like structure torn to shreds, as smoke billows from the site.

Another photo shows a four-story building damaged by an Iranian strike on Camp Arifjan in Kuwait.

In March, reports reported damage to the site, including satellite communications equipment, but it is not clear whether the image dates back to the attack itself.

Brian Katulis, who previously held national security positions in Democratic and Republican administrations, said the damage seen in the images shows that "the United States has not adequately prepared its defenses."

“There is strong evidence that adversaries of the United States, such as China and Russia, may have helped Iran identify targets,” added Katulis, who currently works as a senior researcher at the Middle East Institute, adding that “the Trump administration has done nothing to address these vulnerabilities.”

The photos were published after the issuance of a report by the Pentagon, the oversight body of the US Department of Defense, which concluded that the Iranian strikes “caused damage to hundreds of buildings and facilities and destroyed hundreds more at US bases in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman and Jordan during the conflict.”

The report also indicated that equipment losses amounted to $3.7 billion, and total American spending on the war as of June 29 amounted to $33.4 billion, according to the report.

He added that "dozens of American aircraft were destroyed or damaged" during the months following the outbreak of war.

The report included a list of some of the damaged aircraft, including five air refueling aircraft that were “damaged or destroyed on the ground in Saudi Arabia as a result of Iranian munitions.”

A separate report issued by the US Congressional Budget Office indicated that production of the E-3 aircraft had been halted, and that replacing them would require purchasing newer aircraft that perform the same role, the E-7 model.

The office stated that the cost of the E-3 aircraft alone amounts to $500 million, and that the estimated total cost of equipment lost in combat, including aircraft, drones and the THAAD high-altitude air defense system against missiles, is $1.9 billion.

The office said that its review involved "uncertainty" because the Ministry of Defense did not respond to its requests for information, forcing it to rely on government databases and published reports.

According to the report, the extent of repair and reconstruction work that the US Army intends to carry out remains unclear.

Brian Katulis of the Middle East Institute said that although “these costs demonstrate how the Trump administration has exhausted precious military resources without achieving significant results,” the greatest damage has been to US military readiness more broadly.

He added: "The United States was forced to transfer military assets from Asia to the Arab region, which made the United States and its partners in Asia more exposed and vulnerable to Chinese threats."

He continued: "In addition, the depletion of American ammunition makes Russia more willing to test the weaknesses of Washington's allies in NATO and continue its aggressive war against Ukraine."

He added that although the United States has the financial resources necessary to compensate for equipment losses, it is already facing budget problems, and may not be able to compensate for them quickly enough to prepare for a possible escalation in the Arab region or any other region of the world.

On the same day, Republican Representative Thomas Massie, who is about to leave Congress, announced a move to question Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in preparation for his removal, coinciding with the emergence of new details about the cost of the war with Iran to the United States.