Damage to US military infrastructure in the Middle East is far greater than Washington has acknowledged so far, according to a major investigation published Saturday by CBS.
According to the investigation, the Iranian regime responded quickly after the Trump administration attacked on Feb. 28, hitting dozens of targets at US military bases in seven Middle Eastern countries. The strikes damaged warehouses, command headquarters, aircraft hangars, satellite communications infrastructure, runways, advanced radar systems and dozens of aircraft, according to US officials and an assessment by the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington, DC.
The report also paints a particularly damaging picture for US air defense systems: An outdated F-5 fighter jet from the Iranian Air Force managed to slip past all air defenses and strike a US military base in Kuwait. It was the first successful strike by a foreign fighter jet on US forces in decades. The US bases that were attacked serve thousands of US troops, and in some cases their families, although most were evacuated in the days and hours before the US and Israel went to war with Iran.
The Pentagon has not publicly detailed the extent of the damage to US military bases, or, according to US officials, provided it to members of Congress. "We do not discuss battle damage assessments for operational security reasons," a Pentagon official said in a statement. "Our forces remain fully operational, and we continue to carry out our mission with the same readiness and combat effectiveness." US Central Command declined to comment on the battle damage assessments.
Last month, the administration asked private satellite companies, including Planet Labs, to hide images of the bases from the public, making it harder to assess the extent of the destruction, according to US officials and experts, as well as a statement Planet Labs sent to its customers. The administration's request remains in effect, a Planet Labs spokesman said. A White House spokesman declined to comment.
Several Republican members of Congress have privately expressed frustration directly to senior Pentagon officials over their refusal to provide information on the extent of the damage or any cost estimate for repairs, according to two Republican congressional aides. "Nobody knows anything. And it's not for lack of asking," one aide said. "We've been asking for weeks and haven't received specific details, even as the Pentagon is asking for a higher budget."
The damage and the cost of repairing the bases could reignite a yearslong debate over the benefits of keeping US bases so close to an adversary such as Iran. Some national security officials, including some serving in the Trump administration, have pushed for years to move US bases in the region farther east and farther from Tehran's borders. The issue could also embolden critics of America's military presence overseas, who have advocated reducing the US presence in the Middle East, one US official and one person familiar with the matter said.
