Leaked photos show widespread damage at US sites from Iranian attacks
The undated images - taken at a base in Saudi Arabia and two facilities in Kuwait - were provided to CBS by American personnel on condition of anonymity due to US military restrictions
A destroyed aircraft, shredded tents and trailers that have been ripped apart are just some of the images taken by US troops that show significant damage from Iranian strikes targeting American military assets in the Middle East, CBS News reported.
The undated images --taken at a base in Saudi Arabia and two facilities in Kuwait - were provided to CBS by American personnel on condition of anonymity due to US military restrictions, the outlet said.
“This is major damage to our bases that hasn’t been communicated to the American public,” CBS quoted one US service member as saying.
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The Pentagon’s inspector general released a report earlier this week that said the military’s Central Command (CENTCOM), which is responsible for US forces in the Middle East, had reported widespread damage to American facilities and equipment.
CENTCOM said Iranian strikes “damaged and destroyed hundreds of buildings and structures at US bases in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman, and Jordan,” the report said.
“In addition, dozens of US aircraft were destroyed or damaged” during the war, the report said.
The Defence Department estimated the cost of the war at $33.4 billion as of June 29, but that figure “does not include costs for infrastructure repairs,” according to the report.
The US and Israel launched the war against Iran on February 28, with President Donald Trump saying the goal was to prevent the Islamic republic from obtaining nuclear weapons -- which Tehran denies it is seeking.
Iran retaliated with attacks across the region and blockaded the Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of world oil supplies previously flowed -- a move that has sent oil prices soaring and caused global economic fallout.
Meanwhile, Saudi warplanes have pounded Yemen and Houthi fighters launched drones and missiles at Saudi cities, after a lightning advance that has extended Tehran’s reach.
The Houthis, who since last week have swept through Yemeni towns along the Red Sea coast and seized islands in the Bab el-Mandeb strait at its mouth, released battlefield video overnight of fighters seizing armoured vehicles from Saudi-backed forces.
Warplanes flew overhead and huge explosions billowed into the sky from desert dunes, the video showed.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the group had launched fresh drone and missile strikes on the major Saudi Red Sea oil port of Yanbu, and at a southern Saudi airbase at Khamis Mushait.
Earlier, Mr Saree said the Houthis had also shot down a Saudi F-15 fighter jet. No immediate evidence was presented of that incident.
Mr Saree said the Saudis had carried out as many as 450 air strikes on Yemen this week. Officials in the Saudi-backed government that controls southern Yemen have acknowledged that their forces and those of Saudi Arabia were conducting air strikes on Houthi positions, though Riyadh itself has not confirmed them.
The Houthis have fired repeatedly into Saudi Arabia over the past week causing alarms over cities in the south and west. An attack blamed on Iran-aligned fighters in Iraq last week also knocked out Saudi Arabia’s East-West Pipeline, the main route used to divert oil exports from the blockaded Strait of Hormuz.
Riyadh said its air defences had shot down a Houthi drone south of Mecca on Tuesday before it entered prohibited airspace over the holy city, an attack it said crossed a “red line” of threatening shrines sacred to all Muslims. Houthi spokesperson Saree denied the group had targeted Mecca, and said the Saudi reports were a set-up for propaganda purposes.
Sources told Reuters that US officials had held a meeting with the Houthis over the weekend in Oman, at which the group said it had no intention of attacking American vessels and was committed to a ceasefire reached with the US in 2025.
The extension of the war into Yemen threatens to worsen the global energy supply shortage caused by the six-month-old US-Israeli war on Iran, which has disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
Traders say a prolonged closure of Saudi Arabia’s East-West Pipeline could cut off as much as four per cent of global oil supply. Saudi Arabia has not said when operations might resume, but US Energy Secretary Chris Wright told CNBC on Tuesday that crude oil should be flowing through the pipeline within days.
