A Pentagon watchdog has revealed that the United States lost dozens of aircraft, including at least 30 MQ-9 Reaper drones, and that hundreds of buildings and structures used by the US were damaged or destroyed by Iranian attacks during the conflict. The report published on Monday by the Department of Defense inspector general offers the first official account of the losses Washington has incurred in the war from February 28 to June 30. Moreover, the report acknowledges that the US is running short on its munition stockpile and facing “bottlenecks” in supply chains, contradicting President Donald Trump’s repeated pushback.
On Monday, Trump said the US is producing “more Exquisite and Elite Weapons than at any time in our History”. Previously, he asserted that the US has “virtually unlimited” ammunition after reports of shortages by the US media. Throughout the war – beginning with the US-Israel attacks on Iran in late February – Tehran has routinely bombed US bases and assets in the Gulf region.
For most of those attacks, Gulf countries and Washington said the incoming strikes had been intercepted and thwarted. But the Pentagon’s report paints a picture of significant damage and losses running into millions of dollars to US forces and facilities in the region, far more than previously acknowledged. So, what losses has the US incurred in its war on Iran?
The Pentagon’s report says the Defense Department has reported that at least 11 US military personnel were “killed in action”, while seven died in “non-hostile events” during the war. At least six were killed at Kuwait’s Port Shuaiba on March 1; one in Saudi Arabia on the same day; three at Jordan’s Muwaffaq al-Salti airbase, or the Al Azraq base, on July 17; and one at Iraq’s Erbil airbase on July 19, in Iranian attacks. The report added that at least six personnel were killed after a premier jet-powered aerial refuelling tanker KC-135 crashed in Iraq on March 12, while another was killed after an MH-60S helicopter crashed in the Arabian Sea on July 1.
The report added that at least 417 US military personnel were wounded in Iranian attacks until June 30. The US losses covered everything from front-line fighters and attack aircraft to aerial-refuelling tankers, airborne command-and-control planes, rescue helicopters, and unmanned surveillance aircraft. The Iranian military has claimed to have inflicted further damage on US assets, shooting down surveillance and attack drones near the Strait of Hormuz several times.
Tehran also captured a US submersible Dive-LD earlier this month. The report further underlined the assertion by the US Central Command (CENTCOM) that Iranian attacks damaged and destroyed hundreds of buildings and structures at US military installations in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman, and Jordan during the conflict. It did not provide any additional detail or specifics on these damages.
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