U.S. Army Left Troops Exposed to Deadly Iranian Strike, Survivors Say
“It was chaos,” an injured soldier told CBS.
This article originally appeared on the Daily Caller News Foundation and was republished with permission.
Guest post by Derek VanBuskirk
Survivors of Iran’s most deadly attack against U.S. forces since the war started pushed back against the Pentagon’s claims and alleged their unit was exposed, CBS News reported Thursday.
The Iranian drone struck U.S. personnel in Kuwait on March 1, killing six. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth deemed the drone a “squirter,” suggesting that it squeezed through their defenses.
Anonymous service members, however, told CBS News a different story.
One injured soldier told CBS that Hegseth’s recounting of the attack was false. The soldier stated that those inside the compound acted swiftly and bravely, but alleged that the unit was “unprepared to provide any defense for itself. It was not a fortified position.”
Following the U.S.-Israeli strikes against Iran on Feb. 28, the crew of some 60 troops were signaled to take cover in a cement bunker as a ballistic missile flew above them. Later, the crew was allegedly given the all-clear, allowing officers to remove their helmets and continue managing logistics in the region from their desks inside a small wooden and tin workplace, CBS News reported.
About 30 minutes later, “everything shook,” one soldier told CBS, comparing the situation to something from the movies.
“Your ears are ringing. Everything’s fuzzy. Your vision is blurry. You’re dizzy. There’s dust and smoke everywhere,” the soldier continued.
“Head wounds, heavy bleeding, lots of perforated eardrums, and then just shrapnel all over, so folks are bleeding from their abdomen, bleeding from arms, bleeding from legs,” the soldier added.
“It was chaos,” another injured soldier told CBS.
Witnesses told CBS that the soldiers administered aid to themselves, including by jerry-rigging bandages, braces and tourniquets. They even commandeered civilian vehicles to transport the injured to the hospital, CBS News reported.
“One of the hardest things for me is that I know we didn’t get everybody out, so I know that at this point there are still soldiers inside there that still haven’t been identified and evacuated,” one survivor told CBS about how he felt while going to the hospital prior to the other teams evacuating the remaining soldiers.
Hegseth described the event as a drone that “happened to hit a tactical operations center that was fortified, but these are powerful weapons.”
Soldiers told CBS News that the location of Port of Shuaiba was within range of Iran’s missiles and drones.
One soldier told the outlet there was intelligence demonstrating the base was on a list of possible Iranian targets.
“We moved closer to Iran, to a deeply unsafe area that was a known target,” he said. “I don’t think there was a good reason ever articulated.”
He further alleged to CBS that the bunker had only been protected by a thin vertical blast barricade, providing little cover from above attacks.
“From a bunker standpoint, that’s about as weak as one gets,” he claimed.
“It’s not my intent to diminish morale or to disparage the Army or the Department of War more holistically, but I do think that telling the truth is important and we’re not going to learn from these mistakes if we pretend these mistakes didn’t happen,” another soldier told CBS, adding that he believed the attack was preventable.
“I am very sad for their loss and it’s something I’ll carry with me for the rest of my life,” he continued. “But I’m also immensely proud of them and their sacrifice, and their family should be too.”
The Pentagon did not respond to the Daily Caller’s request for comment. A spokesperson for the Pentagon declined to comment to CBS, citing an active investigation into the attack.
In early March, Assistant Secretary of War Sean Parnell asserted on X in response to previous CBS reporting on the attack that, “every possible measure has been taken to safeguard our troops — at every level.”
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