▶ Watch Video: New videos capture Iranian strikes on U.S. base in Kuwait
Washington — New videos obtained exclusively by CBS News show Iranian attacks on a major U.S. military base in Kuwait as the war with Iran kicked off seven months ago. American forces faced ballistic missiles, drones and what witnesses described as Iranian F-5 fighter jets.
The footage obtained by CBS News was recorded by a person stationed on the ground at Camp Buehring, and captures the moments of impact and their explosive aftermath. Damage to buildings and military equipment can also be seen in the videos.
The attacks on Camp Buehring offer a window into the strain Iranian attacks placed on American forces during the opening days of the war. CBS News has learned that soldiers defending the base ran critically low on .50-caliber ammunition as some soldiers were repositioned into the Udari Desert in Kuwait. Two soldiers were injured by lightning there in late April, according to U.S. officials with knowledge of the matter.
Contacted by CBS News, U.S. Central Command, the primary unit which oversees American military operations across the Middle East, declined to comment.
The Pentagon did not comment, but pointed back to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s comments on March 4 regarding the removal of U.S. troops from bases and the employment of defensive measures.
“As we built up offensive combat power, we moved the vast majority of American troops — over 90% of Americans that were on our bases — what we say off the X, out of the range of Iranian fire,” Hegseth told reporters in March.
Camp Buehring, or CBKU, sits about 25 miles from the Iraqi border and has for more than two decades served as a major staging ground for American forces deploying across the Middle East.
CBS News authenticated the videos using metadata embedded in the files and compared the footage to other photographs showing damage to the base.
Ahead of the war, sources said most of the roughly 7,000 troops there were moved elsewhere — as were the majority of U.S. forces in Kuwait — as a part of the Pentagon’s “get off the X” plan, military shorthand for moving away from a position vulnerable to attack.
Once the war started, Iranian attacks, some originating from Iraq, repeatedly threatened the installation. Missiles and drones forced soldiers into bunkers. Three U.S. service members told CBS News that Iranian F-5 fighter jets were also used during the attacks, a detail first reported in April by NBC News.
“They ran so close to us I could see their helmets,” the eyewitness described. “They came in, they hit us, and then took off.”
While most of the U.S. service members were moved off of Camp Buehring, a tranche of more than 100 soldiers stayed behind. The service members feared the isolated base was ill-equipped to handle a mass-casualty event if the attacks continued.
“They hit us bad,” the source told CBS News on condition of anonymity because of the military’s strict media restrictions. “It was horrible. There were a lot of brave guys who stayed to fight there — and people at home don’t know what happened. We had to abandon the base.”
A senior Army official working in logistics, managing operations from another post in Kuwait, confirmed to CBS News there were concerns about the availability of .50 caliber ammunition and other “exquisite” munitions like Patriot missile batteries.
The decision ultimately was to leave. Service members packed up, loading their vehicles with whatever equipment they could and drove at night deep into the Kuwaiti desert. Their remote locations would emerge as forward operating bases, or “FOBs,” where the soldiers would remain indefinitely.
No one was killed by enemy fire at Camp Buehring or at the FOBs, but several were injured, including two soldiers who were struck by lightning in desert sandstorms. One soldier suffered burns after the direct strike while the other suffered a ruptured eardrum, according to U.S. officials with knowledge of the matter.
Before the lightning strike, Army leaders had been trying to move the troops out of the area, but were not able to do so quickly enough. In May, the soldiers left the FOBs for Camp Arifjan, and then relocated to other positions both in and out of the Middle East.
“CBKU got demolished,” the source added. “They need to do an investigation. How come no one came to reinforce us?”
The Defense Department’s inspector general last month released a report on the war with Iran that revealed “equipment losses” worth up to $3.7 billion — including nearly 60 aircraft. On Monday, the Congressional Research Service, which provides nonpartisan analysis to members of Congress, reported that 81 fixed or rotary-wing aircraft including drone assets had been lost or damaged by Iran since February, according to news reports and statements from the Defense Department.
In a first-of-its-kind mandatory report to Congress, the inspector general added that U.S. Central Command had reported Iranian strikes at U.S. bases in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman and Jordan.
Although strikes were mentioned in the report, pictures and videos of any impact zones have been extremely limited. Beyond Camp Buehring, CBS News earlier obtained exclusive photos of damage at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia and Camp Arifjan in Kuwait.
CBS News has also reported extensively on the deadliest attack of the war against U.S. troops at the Port of Shuaiba, which killed six American service members.
