While President Trump strikes a victorious tone, a new report reveals Iran’s retaliatory attacks have inflicted major damage on American military installations across the region.
Satellite imagery analyzed by the BBC and the Center for Strategic & International Studies shows massive craters at US bases in the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. In the first two weeks of the war alone, Iranian strikes caused approximately $800 million in damage, according to military officials cited by The New York Times.
Troops Relocated to Hotels, Raising Concerns
Many of the US’s 13 bases near Iran have been rendered “all but uninhabitable,” forcing troops to relocate to hotels and office spaces across the region and as far as Europe. Retired Master Sergeant Wes J. Bryant, a former Special Operations targeting specialist, told the Times that while expedient operations centers can be set up, “you’re absolutely going to lose capability.”
The positioning of military personnel in civilian structures has raised concerns that the US may be using civilians as “human shields.” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a social media post: “From outset of this war, U.S. soldiers fled military bases in GCC countries to hide in hotels and offices. They use GCC citizens as human shield.”
Officials have reported at least 13 US fatalities so far, with injuries numbering in the hundreds.
Source: Truthout
