New Photos Reveal Heavy Damage to US Bases in Middle East from Iranian Strikes

New photos exclusively obtained by CBS News are helping ascertain the devastating level of damage caused to multiple US bases across the Middle East following Iranian missile and drone attacks. The photos were provided to CBS News by active-duty US service members who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing strict military restrictions on media access.

“This is major damage to our bases that hasn’t been communicated to the American public,” one deployed service member told CBS News. “We’re standing there with our eyes closed getting punched in the face.”

A photo taken at Prince Sultan Air Force Base in Saudi Arabia, shows a direct hit on the rear section of a Boeing E-3 Sentry aircraft. Its tail was severed from the charred fuselage, which housed a rotating radar system used for collecting airborne intelligence. Photos from the base also showed buildings and barracks gutted by the attacks. Some damaged structures stood beside intact concrete “T-walls” that had been used as fortifications against threats such as grenades and mortars.

CBS News also obtained photos showing significant damage at Camp Buehring in Kuwait, a major staging area for US Army ground troops, armoured vehicles and some aircraft in a remote desert region northwest of Kuwait City. The images showed destroyed trailers, damaged buildings and a vehicle that appeared to have been hit in the Iranian attacks.

Another photo showed the aftermath at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait, with a building bearing visible damage.

The new images come as the Defense Department’s inspector general this week released a report on the war in Iran that disclosed up to $3.7 billion in “equipment losses”, including nearly 60 aircraft. According to the report, US Central Command had recorded Iranian strikes on American bases in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman and Jordan.

The service member who spoke to CBS News also disputed the characterisation that Iranian attacks were merely isolated weapons slipping through US defences. “These are not ‘squirters’ getting through,” the service member said, referring to language used by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth after a March 1 attack on Kuwait’s Port of Shuaiba that killed six US troops. “We’re not defending these bases. We’re just watching them get destroyed,” the service member told CBS News.