The Pentagon’s official watchdog on Monday released a special report on the Iran war, representing the Defense Department’s first formal accounting of U.S. equipment and facilities losses during the conflict. The inspector general, citing his communications with U.S. Central Command, said that “Iranian attacks damaged and destroyed hundreds of buildings and structures at U.S. bases in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman and Jordan” during the first months of the war. The report, which covers the start of the war from February 28 to June 30, also acknowledged the depletion of significant US ammunition reserves. CNN previously reported on the destruction of critical US assets, such as missile defense radar facilities, in the early days of the war. Those Iranian attacks contributed to significant changes in the way US troops have traditionally operated in the region, according to the report. CENTCOM “changed personnel, assets and storage facilities” when they came under attack by Iran and its proxy forces. Some of the measures included the withdrawal of military medical evacuation helicopters from Iraq and Kuwait, according to the report, meaning that “the majority of medical evacuations have been carried out by land… to local treatment facilities.” The destruction of the Navy’s regional center in Bahrain, which Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao recently said Iran “destroyed,” added to the “significant challenges” in establishing “adequate naval bases and support ports,” the watchdog said. That led to the distant island of Diego García, in the Indian Ocean, becoming a maritime logistics center, extending replenishment cycles to between 14 and 18 days. The resulting intermittent supply shortages and disruption of the military’s regional mail system compounded the difficulties American sailors faced during record-length deployments to the Persian Gulf to support airstrikes against Iran and, in recent months, blockade its ports. Changes to the military footprint in the Middle East may become permanent: Military and intelligence community officials have quietly discussed the prospect of lasting cuts to US personnel and facilities in the region when the war finally concludes, six sources previously told CNN. The report, prepared in collaboration with the inspector general offices of the State Department and the US Agency for International Development, also covered US diplomatic activities in the region. Damage by Iran to US diplomatic facilities in the Middle East caused approximately $184 million in damage, according to the report. (No cost estimates were provided for damage to US military sites.) As CNN reported during the months of intense fighting, those facilities in Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were attacked by Iran and its proxies. In early March, the US embassy in Riyadh was hit by two Iranian drones, causing extensive damage, including the CIA station in the complex. Also in early March, a drone targeted the U.S. consulate in Dubai and damaged a utility building, the report said. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at the time that the drone had hit a “parking lot adjacent to the chancellery building.” The US embassy in Kuwait completely suspended operations in March after being attacked and damaged by Iranian drones. It resumed emergency operations for the Americans in late June. There were more than 600 attacks on US facilities in Iraq, a senior State Department official said in May. Those attacks caused the most costly damage: approximately $157 million. Between February 23 and June 30, the report said, up to 3,500 diplomatic staff were out of the region, as most US posts were on authorized or ordered departure. Within weeks of the war’s start in February, when U.S. diplomatic facilities across the region came under attack, the department ordered departures from Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, meaning non-emergency staff and all family members had to leave. Authorized departure means that non-emergency personnel could choose to leave. Most positions remain in “restricted operations,” which is not a return to normal staffing but is established six months after the ordered exit. Some diplomats have begun returning to the region, as have some family members. Davis Winkie’s work at CNN is supported by a partnership between the Outrider Foundation and Journalism Funding Partners (JFP). CNN retains full editorial control of reporting.
