Leaked Photos Show Wrecked Warplane and Gutted Barracks From Iran Strikes on U.S. Bases

Since Operation Epic Fury began with the U.S.-Israeli strike on Iran in late February, the war has run seven months with no announced end date. The newest development is not a battlefield event. It's a set of photographs.

CBS News reported Tuesday that active-duty service members, speaking anonymously because of military media restrictions, sent the outlet images showing extensive damage at Prince Sultan Air Force Base in Saudi Arabia and at Camp Buehring and Camp Arifjan in Kuwait. One photo shows a Boeing E-3 Sentry radar plane with its tail severed from a charred fuselage after a direct hit at Prince Sultan. Air & Space Forces Magazine had previously reported that strike happened March 27 and injured more than ten service members, two seriously, according to The Daily Beast.

Other images show gutted barracks, destroyed trailers, and a burned-out vehicle at the Kuwait camps. Concrete T-wall fortifications stand next to buildings that were leveled anyway.

"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." The same service member said Iranian munitions getting through are not the "squirters" Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth referenced after a strike killed six American troops at the Port of Shuaiba in Kuwait in early March, adding, "We're not defending these bases. We're just watching them get destroyed."

What the Inspector General Already Confirmed

The photos arrive days after the Pentagon inspector general's report, released Monday, gave the first official accounting of the war's physical toll. According to CBC, citing The Associated Press, the report found Iranian strikes damaged or destroyed hundreds of buildings and structures at U.S. bases across Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman, and Jordan. The Daily Beast's read of the same report lists at least four F-15E fighter jets at roughly $30 million each, one F-35A, up to seven KC-135 refueling tankers, and up to 30 MQ-9 Reaper drones among the losses, alongside nearly 60 aircraft total and $3.7 billion in equipment losses.

CBS News said the war has cost more than $33 billion overall. CBC reported the Pentagon inspector general's $33.4 billion figure covers the first four months, through June 29, while Hegseth told Congress in late July the running total had reached $37.5 billion.

The Opsec Defense, Stated Fairly

The Pentagon's position, as CBC reported, is that there is no munitions or capability shortage and that the military has what it needs. Trump posted on social media in August that the U.S. is "producing more exquisite and elite weapons than at any time in our history" and said he would "hunt down" people leaking information about supply issues.

There is a legitimate operational security argument here. Publicizing precise damage assessments in real time can tell an adversary which strikes worked, which bases are weakest, and where to hit next. Restricting that information during an active war is standard military practice, not automatically evidence of a cover-up. The Pentagon has not, in any source reviewed here, disputed the authenticity of the CBS photos.

The Daily Beast went further than the photos themselves support, framing them as proof the images "contradict Trump's repeated claims that the conflict has been 'won.'" That's the outlet's characterization, not something the photos or the inspector general's report state directly. ZeroHedge, for its part, called the situation a "cover-up," which is also characterization rather than a confirmed fact. Meanwhile RT, News Pravda, and a site called London Times Live all ran nearly identical copy built around the same CBS report, amplifying it without adding independent verification.

What's Still Unresolved

Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao told the Epoch Times last week that Iran "blew the hell out of Bahrain," an apparent reference to the 5th Fleet headquarters. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi confirmed that characterization on X. Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has warned of "faster, heavier and more painful" retaliation if U.S. action continues.

No source here indicates the Pentagon plans to release an official damage assessment beyond the inspector general's report, and CENTCOM did not respond to The Daily Beast's request for comment. Whether more service members leak additional images, and whether the Pentagon moves to identify and discipline them as Trump has demanded, remains an open question heading into the war's eighth month.