New photos published by CBS News Tuesday reveal extensive damage to U.S. military bases across the Middle East following Iranian missile and drone strikes, with one deployed service member claiming the American public has not been given the full picture of what happened.
The undated images, provided to CBS by active-duty service members who requested anonymity due to strict military media restrictions, show the aftermath of Iranian attacks at bases in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
“This is major damage to our bases that hasn’t been communicated to the American public,” one deployed service member told CBS. “We’re standing there with our eyes closed getting punched in the face.”
The service member also took issue with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s previous description of attackers as “squirters” following a March 1 strike on the Port of Shuaiba in Kuwait that killed six American troops. “These are not ‘squirters’ getting through,” the service member said. “We’re not defending these bases. We’re just watching them get destroyed.”
Among the most striking images obtained by CBS is a photo from Prince Sultan Air Force Base in Saudi Arabia showing a Boeing E-3 Sentry aircraft badly damaged after an Iranian strike. The network reported that the rear of the four-engine aircraft took a direct hit, separating its tail from its burned fuselage and damaging the section that supported its rotating radar system.
New photos obtained exclusively by CBS News reveal for the first time the widespread damage and destruction of buildings and vehicles at multiple U.S. positions across the Middle East, as a result of Iranian missile and drone attacks. The images were sent to CBS News by active… pic.twitter.com/MmOX1rQgwN
— CBS News (@CBSNews) September 16, 2026
Additional photos show the aftermath at Camp Buehring in Kuwait, including destroyed trailers and a burned-out vehicle, along with a badly damaged building at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait. The Pentagon did not respond to CBS News’ request for comment on the images.
The report comes just days after President Trump pushed back on separate reporting that Iranian strikes had damaged multiple U.S. military aircraft at an air base in Jordan. Speaking to NewsNation, Trump insisted there was “no damage” and “no nothing” from that incident.
Adding further scrutiny to the situation, the Defense Department’s inspector general released a fresh report this week on the war in Iran, revealing “equipment losses” worth up to $3.7 billion, including nearly 60 aircraft, according to CBS.
Taken together, the new photos and the inspector general’s report raise fresh questions about how forthcoming the administration has been regarding the toll Iranian strikes have taken on American military assets in the region. With service members now going public, albeit anonymously, over concerns that the damage has been downplayed, pressure is likely to mount for more transparency from both the Pentagon and the White House about the true extent of the losses and what, if anything, is being done to better protect U.S. personnel and equipment stationed at these bases.
