ALWAGHT- Damage to a large portion of US military bases across West Asia from strikes by Iran and its allies has raised Washington's concerns about regional infrastructure resilience, a new CNN investigation reports.
A new CNN investigation has found that at least 16 US military sites across eight West Asian countries were targeted in retaliatory strikes by Iran and its allies, with damage in several cases severe enough to render facilities "virtually inoperable." The affected sites account for most US military positions in the region, according to a congressional aide familiar with damage assessments. The investigation, based on dozens of satellite images and interviews with US and Persian Gulf sources, revealed that strikes focused on high-value assets including radar systems, communications infrastructure, and aircraft—described by one aide as America's "most expensive and most limited resources in the region."
Officials offered differing assessments of the destruction, ranging from facilities being completely destroyed and needing shutdown to being worth repairing for strategic benefit. One US source stated, "I've never seen anything like this before." The financial toll is also mounting: the US Department of War's comptroller told lawmakers the war has cost $25 billion so far, though internal estimates place the figure between $40 billion and $50 billion. The developments have also shaken Washington's regional partners, with one Saudi source telling CNN that "the alliance with the US cannot be exclusive and it is not impregnable."
Iran's reprisal began on February 28, immediately following the US-Israeli unprovoked aggression against the Islamic Republic. In at least 100 waves of retaliatory strikes, Iran's Armed Forces delivered decisive blows to strategic American assets across Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, the UAE, Kuwait, and Jordan, while also striking Israeli assets throughout the occupied territories. Regional resistance movements from Lebanon and Yemen cooperated with Iranian forces in delivering some of the blows.
