CIREBON NEWS – More than a dozen United States (US) bases in the Middle East were damaged due to Iran’s retaliatory attacks. However, Washington and the Pentagon always play down the damage and losses suffered by the US military.
After Operation Epic Fury, a joint attack carried out by the US and Israel, the Iranian military immediately responded by destroying American assets in Middle Eastern countries.
US officials confirmed a growing number of locations were hit and Prince Sultan’s base in Saudi Arabia emerged as a focal point of the campaign.
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The damage suffered by US bases in the Middle East is “far worse” than US President Donald Trump and the Pentagon have claimed. The US will spend billions of dollars on repairs, NBC News reported April 25, citing several American officials.
Iran’s response to the initial attack saw it strike dozens of targets at US facilities in seven Middle Eastern countries, the sources said. Warehouses, command headquarters, aircraft hangars, satellite communications infrastructure, runways, advanced radar systems and dozens of aircraft were targeted, they added.
Early in the conflict, an Iranian F-5 fighter jet bombed Camp Buehring in Kuwait, marking the first time in years that a US base had been attacked by enemy fixed-wing aircraft, according to officials.
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In mid-March, the California-based company Planet Labs, which provides access to satellite imagery for governments and businesses, extended the delay to 14 days to prevent use by “actors hostile to Washington.”
On April 5, Bloomberg reported that the Trump administration asked the company, along with several other companies working in the sector, to voluntarily withhold images of certain areas of interest due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. Some Planet Labs images shared online show damage to US military sites.
The reported damage to high-value assets such as E-3 AWACS aircraft and F-35 fighter jets suggests a broader pattern of Iran targeting US air power and surveillance capabilities.
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An E-3 Sentry aircraft was reported damaged or destroyed in a March 27 attack on Prince Sultan Air Base. Earlier, a US F-35 was damaged during a mission over Iran and forced to make an emergency landing.
Meanwhile three US F-15E jets were shot down over Kuwait on March 2 in a misfire incident, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said.
With the war entering its second month, the US death toll continues to rise. The US military has confirmed 13 fatalities from Iranian attacks across the region, while more than 300 soldiers were injured, according to US officials cited by Reuters in late March.
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Iran continues to expand the scope of its attacks beyond the initial wave. Iranian military statements carried by local media in recent days mentioned targets including Camp Arifjan in Kuwait, Prince Sultan Air Base near Al-Kharj in Saudi Arabia, and Sheikh Isa Air Base in Bahrain.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) more broadly carries out attacks on US positions in Iraq, the UAE and across the Gulf. The IRGC also claimed to have targeted the US Fifth Fleet and destroyed “high value” American military equipment.
Iran’s March 27 missile and drone attack on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia injured 12 US troops, two of them seriously, according to a US official cited by Reuters.
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The attack also damaged several US aircraft, according to American officials, with separate reports indicating that a refueling plane was among those hit.
US and Arab officials quoted by the Wall Street Journal said that the same attack also hit a Boeing E-3 Sentry, an airborne warning and control system (AWACS) aircraft, a critical surveillance platform.
The IRGC said the plane was “100% destroyed” in the attack, while open source flight tracking data showed that several such planes had been stationed at the base in recent weeks. The E-3, the ultimate command and control platform, cost about $270 million to produce. CENTCOM has not publicly confirmed the extent of the reported damage.
Iranian media on Sunday claimed new drone and rocket attacks against US-linked facilities in Iraq, including targets around Baghdad and the Victory Base compound. Reuters previously reported a drone attack on US diplomatic facilities near Baghdad airport on March 10, followed by further rocket and drone attacks on March 17. ***
